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Round 2 Results

Round 2

Wildcard Round

Round One 1/2 Results

Round One Results

Round One 1/2

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 results of round 2. Read between the images for commentary.


Bracket 1


Clay: 1st photo (B) just won the contest I think.  phenomenal zig zag of water and colors .. soft moss and hard blocky rock.. wish the paddler had a red boat and was booting but it’s OK.  Not touchable by I even with that much ICE at big brother.
Darin: I agree with Clay that a red boat would really pop here. Still I like Daniel Stewart's paddling position, the zig zag of water, but more than anything the inclusion of foreground elements to give the image depth. I shot a similar image last year, but B just has an incredible amount of depth thanks to that foreground. I like the image I a lot too, the ice is simply incredible, and the orange boat pops from the blue scene. A tighter crop would help it pop even more if you got rid of the sunlight in the top right. I love that there is space for the paddler to move into, some question of unknown, especially with the nasty ice undercut lurking downstream. In the end B is an image that makes me want to go kayaking, and gets my vote. I thought this was much closer than the public vote indicated.

VS


B advances with a unanimous vote.

Bracket 2

Clay: C winner and  is amazing .. complex drop with laurels and SE looking rock but I can’t place the rapid.. West Prong really low?  Love the tight exit and wondering what the front of that rock looks like plus the paddler is lit up and on a nice hard stroke. 
  R is good, love the dog, the can on the ground, the happy feeling despite miserable weather and obvious swim. Hate the tarp shading the bottle drinker but love the feeling it gives.
Darin: C does a fantastic job defining SE boating, and I love the spotlight of sun on the kayaker. It's a shame their paddle is blocking their face, but I'll take that over a poor paddle stroke. Lots of space to move into, the expectation of the unknown and good light. R: In Norway this year Olli Grau taught us the oldschool method; the swimmer buys everyone else in the group a beer. I'm way more into that than the whole bootie beer thing, and the crop at the bottom drives me crazy. It does capture emotion as Clay says, but not enough to surpass C.
VS


C advances with a unanimous vote.

Bracket 3

Clay: A is winner!   Hot damn that looks stout!  Sorry the focus on the paddler blurred that cool left foreground rock a bit but love the composition as well as wanting to run both lines and wondering what is just out of the frame that made him fall in so steeply.  Wish it were a red / orange boat but it works.      H is lovely - Jason’s pan am textbook and the photographer killed the shot, just black boat, Skook shot, fuzzy background (though love the foreground) can’t compete with fresh hard whitewater unless it was BIG trick and colorful and  had something in the back ground like a seal / orka / tug boat. 
Darin: A: This image captures the feeling of creeking so well. Personally I'd crop it as a 16:9 to get rid of the busy trees up top. Still it makes me stare and wonder, especially about the lead in which must explain why he isn't boofing further river left. It also alludes to there being some run-out in a gorge. Just an incredible feel, and nice to see an image from somewhere new (to me at least, where is this?). H is a beautiful image with a lot of feel too. Judging from the light on Jason Craig I'm just not convinced the flare is organic, it looks photoshop induced. I'd be happy to be proved wrong with a raw file :) Still it's a beautiful, captivating image but it doesn't draw with me with questions like A does.

Bracket 4


Clay: M is the winner - nice Yule shot showcasing the crazy shale ditch that it is while some lucky soul drops in at a primo level on the new right line instead of the old ‘’ow!  my ass’’ left one. 
G is great light and amazing rock - better lit too - but that jumble downstream is less enticing and the paddler’s position and colors can’t make up for it. 
Darin: G is my favorite shot of the competition. This shot captures the best kind of expedition paddling, a remote gorge and tough multi-move rapids. The gap in the gorge downstream just shows how far the team has to go to complete the river, and makes me wonder what's down there. Louis Geltman's aggressive draw stroke on this move is great too. At least I think it's Louis. The rock texture, gorge, big rapid, a relatively unmanipulated image, this one has it all. M has a lot of merits too, the dark share of Yule Creek give it a forbidding feel. I like the left to right movement of the paddler, but not his paddling position as much as G. It's not bad, but it's just not as active. The bright orange gopro is a distraction, as well as the excessive vignetting and subtle edge softening applied to the photo. I'd swear this image was processed to look like it was shot with a 24mm f/1.4 but it feels processed, just not quite an organic feel. A great image, but G is my favorite of the whole competition so far.
VS


G advances over M 2 to 1.


Bracket 5


Clay: T hat’s not fair!  Dane’s kick flip off the ramp, the amazing colors he brings to the green sunny scene with cottony dark cloudy Idaho environment, knowing that Gerd swam doing this last year, and knowing that it’s right above Jakes..   If this is Tait Troutman or Matty B or Mike Leeds I wouldn’t be surprised.  Apologies to O - I love the drop (where?) and paddler diving into the curling spray but it’s blown out one side, dark on the other,  cropped just a touch too tight to see the landing. And his paddle is out of the water.
Darin: J is incredible but for my taste is a little too processed. It looks like HDR which I'm not a fan of. In this mid day light the only way to get an image like this to really work is with lights, and that's expensive and a hassle. Still it has a fantastic feel and captures excitement, certainly if you know what's downstream. That's one issue though, while a lot of people know what's downstream, not everyone knows what is downstream, and if you have to explain something the photograph isn't doing its full job. Still, the kickflip off the ramp is big enough to speak for itself, regardless of Jakes being downstream. O: Rio Escondido in Argentina? No matter what the river, the blown out water just kills this image for me. This looks like one of the most incredible rapids in the world that always has terrible light.
VS


J advances with a unanimous vote.


Bracket 6


Clay: Q it is. While the white boat is horrible and just about kills the shot the rainbow and logs and solid body position add so much to this classic Maruia Falls shot.   Should be done even better for top honors but got lucky on the draw.  F is a beautiful lead in drop to a red boat driving for something… kinda cool that we don’t know what but not quite enough height to the bottom drop to make me really care.  I want to boof that top drop - right on the sunny spot instead.  Good shot just nothing to really bring me back to that amazing boof above as the paddler is going out of the action instead of into it.
Darin: Well this is the weakest bracket in this round. I'm torn between the images. On Q I like the rainbow and paddlers position. The building in the background kind of adds ambiance, but I don't like all the wood on the right, nor the double gopro, or the white boat. I think this one just wasn't quite shot from the right angle. I end up asking is it about the scenery, the place, the paddler? F: Like Clay I find my eye wandering to the top boof instead of the paddler. This would be a much more engrossing shot if the paddler was running the top boof. Still I like the image, because I like multi-move rapids. It's just like the popular vote, a very close call. In the end I go with F because there are less distracting elements overall.
VS


F just barely squeezes by Q 2 to 1.



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