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Round One Results

Round One Point Five

Round One

The Entries

AT & IR with prizes!

Third Annual Whitewater Photography Comp

2016 Whitewater Calendar

Norway Trekking 4

Sony 35 1.8 vs Sony 28 f/2

Norway Trekking 3

South Kaweah Canyon Loop

Flashlight 1 FL

Pentax 28mm f/3.5 review

Sony FE 28mm f/2 take two.

Review: Sony FE 28mm f/2

Norway Trekking 2

Norway Trekking

Middle Verzasca, Switzerland

Egua, Italy

Gronda, Italy

Brandenburger Ache

Celestial Falls

White & Little White

Eagle Creek, Oregon

McKenzie River - Sahalie & Koosah

Testing PFD Rescue Belts

Corsican Climax

New Nomad

Codi River - Corsica.

Sven Lämmler - Site Zed

Return to the California Heat

Strange thing in Sony land

Old Nikons, Norway

AT Hercules Review Conclusion

Upper Cherry X3

Italia

Cherry Sundae

South Kings

More Corsica

April Upper Cherry

Cali

Corsica

Samyang 12mm Return

Prijon

UMK

Lost Kayaks

Fixed Tuolumne Photos

Water & No Water

Below French Meadow

Down Time

135mm love

Clendenning Creek

New Year, New Wallpaper

New Year

USFS Catch 22

AT Hercules

Decline

MindShift Adventure Bags

Measuring Volume

Flash & the A6000

Rotomolding Outfitting

Back with B&W

Reformat & Recent Shots

Mexico Wallpaper

It's go time.

V-Slide

Summer in the Kaweah

Strange Business

Lens v Lens

Slate Creek

Sun Stars

Snow Branch

3rd and 4th

Back to the beginning

Consolation

The Winner!

Final Round

Round 4 Results

Round 4

Round 3 Results

Round 3

Round 2 Results

Round 2

Wildcard Results

Wildcards

Round One Results

Round One

All In

First Fourteen

Pushing Bottons

2nd Annual Photo Comp

GoPro Covers

Guidebook

Rain & Diversions

The Coast & Sony Zeiss

BC Updates

Homer's Odyessy

Tutorial Update

Recent Reads

Shasta Ranch

Morning Light

Dry Shasta

Corse II

Corsica

Leave us the misery

Team Strudel

New In Print

Cull

A7: Just the right size.

L'Île de Beauté

Thanksgiving tradition

Backpack testing

Trolling for clicks.

Just once

Back to the A7

Seasons

Classics

Df

Metabones Speedbooster

Halloween

Salto Alerces

Rio Futaleufu

Rio Baker

Journey to the Baker

Rio Gol Gol

Rio Cochamo

Cochamo Valley

more Chile

A-7

Chile

Reunited

The mystery

Rio Salado

Argentina

Fuefukigawa

Free?

Gear Attrition.

Imperfection is Beautiful

PPP

Moving!

The Winner!

Final Round

The Finalists

Semi-Finals

Advancing to Semis

United

Quarter Finals

We'll be back.

Sweet Sixteen

Advancing Wild Cards

Waiting

Wild Cards

Round One Results

March Madness

Last Four Spots

Second Fourteen

First Fourteen

Photo Championship

Far Nor Cal

Through the roof

Reality

LA-EA1

Corrected

Sierra River Scenery

Unnatural

Fresh

Abandoned

System

Sahalie Wallpaper

Back in the office

Out of the office

The Constant Change

Heading North

Subtle Details

Camera Gear List

Argentina!

Illinois/Stoked

Lifestyle wallpaper

NEX-5r updates

FM2

Hansel

South Feather misc

Sigma 19mm Review

Running Free

Two words

Right Wrong Remix

Astral Brewer

Diane's October WP

Dragon Tree

Follow your head

Sorting, sorting

Breaking the Rules

RSS Feed

Fantasy Slide

Thomas's B-day

South Fork Feather

The right wrong

Birthday wallpaper

Calendar/D600

Scenery & Stuff

Tools

D600

A99 commentary

Fixing links

Out of Town

Stikine Wallpaper

Camping

Urban Moon

NEX-5R

Texture

2013 Calendar not quite

Any camera

2013 Calendar

Mighty Klamath

Kyotsu Wallpaper

Ligare

Spin

Green again

Captain Challenge

Drytop Test Challenge

The Leaves

Capitol Moonrise

Colorado Captain

Flying Squirrel

Green Wallpaper

lifestyle

no name

a different side

upgrade path

4th of July

NF Moke

Dropping In

At the river

Stikine Wallpaper

Camping

Fader

Shangri-la wallpaper

Progression 2

Progression

Dinkey Rok Wallpaper

Lower Deer Creek

Deer Wallpaper

Into the unkown

almost

FWT + Yuba Gap

Dinkey Wallpaper

Black and not quite

Snowy Box Canyon

UMC Wallpaper

Storm Clouds

Sutter Buttes

Flying wallpaper

Barking Dog

Talung Wallpaper

French tutorials

NEX-5N Firmware

Wooley Creek Wallpaper

Common Sense

The Longest Road

Siang Dreams

little city

subtle

Reflections

2/13 Wallpaper

Clear Creek

2/7 updates

Taylor UMC Wallpaper

More Shasta

Four Deaths

Tamron 17-50

Piaxtla Wallpaper

In Color

B&W Mix up

Nikkor 24-70

Siang Wallpaper

Smith Pano

NF Smith Wallpaper

Stars Wallpaper

rain!

30

Mistletoe

Jonas Wallpaper

The Future

Spirit of Adventure

Lunar Ghost

Lunar Eclipse

Cody Wallpaper

Watershed

Wallpaper, other.

NF Wallpaper

Behind the scenes

For Sale

Drew Wallpaper

Thigh Hooks

85mm f/1.4

Oakland

Jackson Wallpaper

Headed Home

Rwenzori Four

Elena Hut

Werner Wallpaper

Bujuku Hut

The Green

Tied for First

Rwenzori One

South East 2

Kokatat Wallpaper

South East 1

Moonscape

Centennial

Not Davis

Davis

Safari

Red Barn

Pit River

Clean Water

Overnight Gear

Itunda

Dead Dutchman

Bujagali

BRG

Talung 3

Talung 2

Night & Misc

135 DC 2

135 DC

Talung

82 updates

Camping Wallpaper

Quote & Updates

Scott Valley

Backpacking

DPP Beta

Wallpaper

Japan Diaries

Dark Side

Rapid Mag

72

UCC

TS Q&A

EFK TS

Japan 3

Japan 2

Fantasy

65

South Silver

Japan 1

Seasonal Update

70-300VR

4th of July

TS Loop

BK

NFMF

300mm f/4.5

Gay Wave

52mm f/2 AI

53

Cowbell

51

Pakistan 2

Mill

Big secret

50mm AF-D

Silver Fork

Pakistan

#44

Back

#42

Teesta Four

Sony 16mm f/2.8

The road

Fishing

Silver Creek

Lobster Pot 2

Lobster Pot

A great paddler?

Kern River Fest

Jason Craig

Sunday

Teesta Three

The Wave

Teesta Two

Teesta One

Deer Creek

UMC T/S

Rainy Days

Bear River TS

What's in an edit?

Siang River

T/S Webber

Shot o the day

Change

Squaw Valley Creek

North Fork Cosumnes

Nikkor 28mm f/2

Random

Updated Tutorial #2

Tilt/Shift

Siang

Panning shot

New River Update

24mm 2.8

Weaverville Stars

Two lens reviews

Night Photography

Stars at Castle Lake

Going with it.

Lohit image

First

 
The Third Annual Whitewater Photography Competition presented by Adventure Technology.

Thanks to Gareth Tate and Adventure Technology who will award a paddle of choice to the champion.

Immersion Research also has some love for the competition with a pair of Tangerine Guide Shorts and Supafly Zinger Shorts.

The judging round. This is tough, it takes time, and criticism is often not well recieved. Spur of the moment I was inspired to invite Clay Wright to be one of the judges, as he is enjoying kayaking vicariously while recovering from a shoulder surgery. Thus he has time to vote, and is fun to have as a second judge because we often have different opinions about photographs.

Bracket 1: G & J

Clay: Photo G is the winner. While the boof is a little pointless since it’s a slide it’s a big drop I’ve never seen and the kayaker is in the exact right spot about to drop it.

Darin: In G I like that there are three layers, the kayaker and slide, the first tree lined ridgeline and finally the Castle Rock Formation in the background. I've always wished the river flowed in the opporsite direction here so it had more left to right momentum. I like that Jared Johnson is taking an agressive stroke here, as having been there in person the water at the lip is sliding to the paddlers left, so it does require a right draw/forward stroke. I do dislike the photographer to the upper right of JJ in the photo (that's me!) but such is life.

VS



Clay: Big Brother so I would think the photographer is either trying to get an unusual angle or about to run it but hasn’t really put in the effort to get the best shot of the height. 

Darin: This is one of the best Big Brother shot's I've seen. A lot has been done with this image to make it work. It appears the top right 1/3 of the photogaph was in the sun or brighter light, and the left side was brought up in photoshop. It was well done, but the top right is still the brightest spot in the photo, and with the orange on orange paddler, it ends up being the spot that draws my eye after a second or two, which is a shame because the vertical line of water below the blue kayak does a lot to draw the eye up to the main subject. The colors and contrast are nice, although to my eye it looks like a lot of noise reduction was done (note how plasticy the water in the foregroud is).

Contestant G is advancing with a II to I vote.




Bracket 2: H & I

Clay: The dinner with the kayak is great idea and great execution in many ways but the boat looks really fat, it’s a Jitsu, and he looks like he’s not getting very intimate with her.. just chatting about the wine or something.   Use a carbon boat, more romance and a more ‘connected look’ to compete with actually whitewater shots. 

Darin: I'm torn on this shot, it's a fantastic idea, but I don't like the execution. For me it has nothing to do with the boat angle, it's two things that bother me. The first is the light, it doesn't look natural because it's coming from camera right. So unless they are eating lunch and the light is coming from a side window, it's off. I'd like to see this shot with the key overhead and fill from the side. The second is all the items on the table could have used more time to get ideal placement, too many things overlap. The wine bottle blocking the hand is the largest thing, as well as the candle and the wine glass. Just the attention to detail to shift these items around would help a lot.
VS



Clay: Nice tight shot of Tomata 1, nothing super special but cool tight crop and nice boat position.


Darin: See above. I find the rock in the background a bit distracting, and it's a shame their kayak is hidden by the water.


The vote is split 1-1 and I'm super torn on this one. I like the creativity of H and the kayaking aspect of I. At the time of writing this the public vote is 51% to 49% in favor of H and I'm going to have to go that way myself, just for the creativity. I've seen enough media of Tomata 1, and despite liking the shot, creativity wins on this one.





Bracket 3: A & E


Clay: Nice ‘’whats around the bend’ shot with nice sunset lighting and unusual scenery.

Darin: I like that there is space for the paddler to move into, it looks like a fun section of river. Something about it looks a bit Idaho and roadside, and the highlights are just barely blown, and I'd crop in just a little tighter but still this image has feel, and it feels good.

vs


Clay: E is OK but I get the feeling it’s into some BS burned-out WY or ID creek that’s mostly choked with wood and really dangerous class 2 with a few good drops.  And I hate hiking. and unless that’s a girl the shorts are strangely short or absent.

Darin: Clay is more of a masochist for cold weather than I am. On the other hand I don't mind suffering a bit of hiking, or at least that's what I tell myself before hand. I do hate hiking on roads though, and clearly someone with a 4x4 has been on this double track. I like the scenery but dislike two things; the mid day sun makes for boring light, especially with a cloudless sky, and the just off center subject. I'd rather see it centered or further off center. As it is, it just looks like a snapshot.


Contestant A wins with a unanimous vote.





Bracket 4:  C & K

Clay: C is just such a sweet shot.  Is that in Cali or Italy?  Either way incredible backdrop building but also nasty looking line and rapid going down. 

Darin: Vertical shots in an online competition are tough, but this is the best yet. I do feel it would be much better suited to a 4:5 or 5:7 crop rather than the current 2:3 just to get rid of the sky in the top left and keep the focus on the building and paddler. Still, a great shot, and I like that the camera wasn't tilted down to focus on the paddler, a s that would have induced too much distortion to the buiding.
vs


Clay: Nice shot - great color leaves and scouting and dropping but a small drop w brown water and some lens smudges / water drops top left.

Darin: There is a lot to like about this shot, fall colors, paddler off center and of course a Prijon kayak ;) The waterdrop bothers me a little, but I really don't like the paddlers on the top left, nor the excessive foreground. A tighter crop in 5:7 ratio would make for a much more harmonious image.

Contestant C advances with a unanimous vote.


Bracket 5: F & D

Clay:  (we're both commenting on both images) I just like the bright anticipation of that wave over the 'about to land' vapor lock of the G.  The 2nd drop I like better just not the dark gear and lack of enthusiasm.
Darin: As a photographer I'm instantly in love with the shallow depth of field of F. It's also hard to shoot an all whitewater shot without the whiteness blowing this out. Here the dark water contrasts well, the colors are vivid but not overdone, the only drawback is the paddlers rather passive looking position. I like G a lot too, but the two colors hurt it, brown water and green boat/vegetation. If the paddler had space to move into and or was moving towards the camera it would help a lot. As it is there isn't a lot of drama because the story is over. Fun boof, but I like the anticipation of F.
vs

Next up, the results of round 1 1/2 and then I think a wildcard/consolation round is due. 

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