The judge was Matthew Mahlstedt
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First Prize
Karen Finkelman – Window Shopping
I love exploring the different neighborhoods of NYC. This image is a reflection of a building on Greene St. in SOHO. It is an example of one of the many historical cast-iron architectural facades that were built during the 1800’s and line both sides of the cobblestone street. I was drawn to the contrast this image presented of old NYC mirrored in the window of a high-end modern retail store. As an aside the address of the building, 114 Greene St., (I flipped the reflected address in Photoshop) is home to Louis Vuitton on street level. A fourth floor condo in the 1882 historic building listed for $7,995,000.
Second Prize
Maude Svensson – Rowing Boat
I spend most of the summers at Blidö which is an island in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden. On the island, I look for wooden boats to photograph, but every year it is harder and harder to find them. Most boat owners nowadays prefer plastic or aluminum boats that are less demanding to maintain and keep in good condition. Last summer, I was happy to find a large and exclusive wooden sailing boat taking off from the docks at Kalviken. Coincidentally, at the same time, I noticed this lovely and less prestigious rowing boat moored at a small dock further away. When approaching the rowing boat, the sunset increased in intensity, and I decided to focus on the shared reflections from the sunset and the boat. As always, when enjoying the slow and protracted sunsets of the Baltic Sea, my heart was filled with gratitude for the blessings of a simple and natural life.
Third Prize
Larry Gold – Yellow Stigma
Honorable Mention
Maude Svensson – Fisherman’s Boat
We like Eastern Shore a lot, and last Thanksgiving my husband and I were in Watchapreague. We got up early in the morning to watch the sun rise. There are many boats and several docks to admire, but the most beautiful and tranquil event that morning was by the smallest dock and the most unassuming fisherman’s boat.
Honorable Mention
David Blass – Jumping to Warp Speed
This image is a composite of 5 images; one taken while stationary, to capture a vibration-free image of the car itself; and four images of the light trails through the car’s windows and roof, with exposure times from 5 to 10 seconds. I was in the back seat, with the camera on a tripod, and used a cable release to activate the camera.
Honorable Mention
Larry Gold – Small Leaves on Big Leaves
Honorable Mention
HM Karen Finkelman – The Yellow Boat
I couldn’t help noticing this brightly colored boat moored quietly at a dock on Tangier Island, VA. The still water made for an engaging reflection of the bow of the boat. The image was cropped and realigned to provide symmetry and to bring out more details of the reflection.
Honorable Mention
HM Wendy Kates – Dahlia Details
I couldn’t help noticing this brightly colored boat moored quietly at a dock on Tangier Island, VA. The still water made for an engaging reflection of the bow of the boat. The image was cropped and realigned to provide symmetry and to bring out more details of the reflection.
Honorable Mention
Kate Woodward- Interior, The Reach (Kennedy Center)
Honorable Mention
Beth Koller – Follow Me
This is a composite of a series of images (taken on low-burst). The paddler had bold cohesive colors that would make him stand out. He was sitting forward and upright in the boat so that there would be some facial imaging. The route he took provided a J-shaped line and was anchored by a rock on the rapid’s entry point on the right.
Honorable Mention
Beth Koller – Tailor Made
I visited this tailor shop many times. He was very amenable to me taking pictures. I took three images of note. I took this tight approach because it emphasized what was going on. There were good lead-in lines with the steamer tubes and cords. There was just enough in the background to provide context (the spools of thread, the Singer machine), but not so much as to distract. The soft brown of the pants being pressed and the pale blue tailor’s shirt were cohesive and provided a good background for the tools of his trade: his tape measure and the iron.
Novice
First Prize
Anne Golfer – East Wing
This photo of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, was shot in high sunlight, midday, using an iPhone 13Pro. I was mesmerized by the 2-dimensional appearance of the 3-dimensional building on the right, as well as its shadow on the building on the left. I experimented with the original color photo by using various tones of white, black, and gray, and ultimately decided upon this monochrome version.
Second Prize
Diane Sanders – Bromeliad
I took this photo of the bromeliad during our club outing to the US Botanical Gardens. While I loved the orchid exhibit, the elegance of the bromeliad appealed to me. Its gray-green tones were easily rendered in monochrome. I left the ferns at the bottom of the image to ground it.
Third Prize
Will Rabinovich – Circle of life
This image was taken in Brookside Gardens. I liked the spiraling form of the leaves and I wanted to emphasize that. I used a relatively wide aperture so that the leaves would gradually blur out. Then I converted to black and white, did some global exposure and contrast adjustments, and finished with some masked dodging and burning.
Honorable Mention
Anne Golfer – Falling Leaves
I captured “Falling Leaves” from my deck, using a Canon 77D with a 70-200mm lens and a 2X extender. The sun was setting. I used various apps on my phone, as well as Luminar on my computer, to achieve a mirror image with high saturation and detail. I was surprised and delighted that the final result yielded intertwined stems.
Honorable Mention
Will Rabinovich – The Vessel Abstract
This picture was taken on NYC’s Highline. Its of the Vessel, a building/sculpture near the Highline. I stood underneath the building to isolate a section of it for this abstract. This was taken with a Sony A6500 with a 16-70 lens at 70mm (105 mm full frame equivalent). It was processed in Capture One using basic exposure, contrast and saturation adjustments.
Honorable Mention
Marc Auerbach – Window Reflection
This was taken in downtown Pittsburgh. The fact that all 3 windows lined up made for an interesting image. The reflection from the lighting made you guess what you were looking at.