Stuck in Customs HDR Book Contest Day 1 – Landscape Photos

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m judging Trey’s photo contest in which PeachPit is giving away 3 copies of his soon to be released book A World in HDR. I’ve been watching the submissions (anyone can participate – you just Tweet links to photos!) today, and I’ve collected several of my favorites below.

It’s was very difficult picking a winner because all of the submissions are really fantastic. The photographers did a great job, and the people who submitted the images had a keen eye. But don’t you worry your pretty little heads… I picked a winner down below! ;-)

So, today is Landscape day and let me give everyone two big hints if you want a better chance at winning:

1. Make sure you link to an image that is a reasonable size. If I can’t view it in at least 1024×768 it is definitely not going to win. I mean who wants to squint at a tiny little image. Just upload it in 1920×1080 and you are going to be safe. Oh, and don’t put ugly watermarks all over it either…
2. If it’s not Creative Commons licensed then it’s not going to make it onto my blog or any other reputable ones either. Which means that you also aren’t going to get a powerful backlink. Or the traffic that comes with it. Using a CC license doesn’t erode your ability to sell commercial licenses, it just lets you get free publicity from people like me who might use it non-commercially.

That’s it! Off to the photos now!

James Tuck submitted several photos, and apparently he’s a brand new Twitter user just for this contest! Welcome James! Anyway, here is a photo from Anders Bjørshol entitled “Polluted“:

Jonas Christensen posted a link to this old Battery, which is not quite a landscape, but certainly is a human made impression on one.

Lisa Boulden shared this image called Thought’s Landscape:

Club 1137 submitted this photo of Khao Lak beach (I believe in Thailand‎). I like it a lot, especially the reflection of the trees in the water. I think the image just needs a little Photoshop work to cover up the drain hoses poking out.

Dan shared this photo of a beautiful Koi Pond in Brooklyn:

FotoGrafZahl posted this magnificent HDR shot of a tree:

Mike Bright submitted this photo entitled Storm Over Polperro:

Matthias Weigel shared this photo of sheep in a field. I absolutely love it. It’s just not quite the “Landscape” theme we were looking for today so it couldn’t win…

Vivek Sekar sent in this photo of a waterfall in Iceland. The composition is very nice, including the little frozen flower in the foreground. I would like to see the colors turned up a little in post to really make it “pop”, but enjoy the photo very much as is.

Here is a photo by Barbara Jean which was shared by Jonas. The image is very visually interesting, though maybe a little too busy for some eyes. Still, I love it!

Astin submitted this photo of a waterfall in Iceland. I’m fascinated with Iceland and this is why!

Eugene submitted this photo entitled Dreams of Summer. I simply love it.

And Finally…

Jean Loh posted this photo by Scott Weber entitled Lower Lewis River Falls. And guess what folks, this one is the winner for the day! Quite simply – it made me want to be there! That is not to say that the other photos weren’t beautiful and I didn’t love many of them. But when I saw this one, it was like emotion in pixels for me.

So, congrats to Jean on winning a copy of Trey’s A World in HDR book! And many thanks to Scott Weber for taking such a fantastic photo of such an amazing place. Cheers!

Remember, tomorrow is Vehicle day! So you can Tweet photos of anything that will carry humans! Planes, trains, and automobiles… oh my!