Round three is over for the Pinkbike Photo of the Year contest. Things are getting heated with each photographer just having won themselves a Marzocchi 66RC3 Evo Ti and an F-stop Guru bag with ICU. That's about $1500 bucks each. With four photos left vying for the Specialized Demo, the debate over the photos is sure to get serious. But you pick the winner,
go to voting page and decide on your favorite shot.
Matchup #1
Winner 50.3% |
49.7% |
Judges' FeedbackWe see many 'roost' shots, but this one takes the cake for having the most creative angle. Having the dirt at the top of the lip in focus and the spray closer to the camera out of focus creates a beautiful layering effect. Staying low to the ground, capturing the sick scrub by the rider tied everything together.
Matchup #2
29% |
Winner 71% |
Judges' FeedbackI like the mood and feel of this shot. I can feel the day. We've all been there--the cold misty day where you shiver on the ride up and shred the ride down. This shot doesn't have sick action, but it oozes soul. Compositionally, all the elements are there: some diagonals, good use of negative space, and moody lighting.
Matchup #3
41.9% |
Winner 58.1% |
Judges' FeedbackShooting POV photos is pretty easy now that we have dedicated POV cameras, but it takes a little extra effort to do it properly with a full size DSLR. Justin Olson does it properly here, hanging his Canon 5DmkII on Andrew Taylor's chest to get this epic shot of Ryan Howard. Not only is the quality on this shot great, but the timing is pretty bang on as well. This is the kind of shot that takes a few attempts to get right, you have no idea what you've shot until afterwards, and these guys killed it. Great work!
Matchup #4
Winner 63.4% |
Winner 36.6% |
Judges' FeedbackWe don't need to waste your time with words for this image. Simply sit back and look in and live it.
Vote Round 4 HereWhat's at stake? $20,000+ in prizes!
Round of 32 - All 32 receive a pair of SPY Sunglasses (MSRP $120 each)
Round of 16 - All 16 receive two pairs of Tioga Psycho Genius tires (MSRP $200 for two pairs)
Round of 8 - All 8 receive a set of Black Race Face Atlas cranks (MSRP $339.99 each)
Round of 4 - All 4 receive a Marzocchi 66RC3 Evo Ti (MSRP $1199.00 each) and an F-stop Guru bag with ICU (MSRP $245 each)
Winner - Receives a Complete 2012 Specialized Demo (MSRP $6600) and ANY F-stop bag plus 2 ICU's plus a Dakota accessory kit (MSRP $500)
Thanks to
Specialized,
Marzocchi,
Race Face,
Tioga,
F-Stop Gear and
Spy
gizmodo.com/justinolsen
www.popphoto.com/gear/2011/11/justin-olsen-uses-chest-mounted-dslr-incredible-mountain-bike-photos
www.petapixel.com/2011/11/17/mountain-biking-photos-captured-with-a-chest-mounted-dslr
Some of the absolute best photography was eliminated early on because it was matched up to other outstanding pictures. Both of which were clearly much stronger artistically than some of the other matches that were only paired because of similarities.
The pictures were never compared as a whole, and ranked accordingly, but only compared to one single other picture. This left great pictures getting the boot while mediocre (by this competition's standards) pics continued to higher rounds. This was really disappointing.
I feel bad for the photographer's who were eliminated early on because of this, only to see the top prizes going to worse photos simply because there were never compared against each other.
Would it not have been simpler and more objective to simply have Pinkbike voters cast their vote for their one favorite, and then used the percentage of votes to rank them? Then simply eliminate the lowest 16, 8, 4 etc.. until voters had only the top 2 pictures by vote count left to choose from?
Maybe next year. Good job to all the photographers! You are produced excellent pictures and captured the spirit of mtbing very well.
gizmodo.com/justinolsen
www.popphoto.com/gear/2011/11/justin-olsen-uses-chest-mounted-dslr-incredible-mountain-bike-photos
www.petapixel.com/2011/11/17/mountain-biking-photos-captured-with-a-chest-mounted-dslr
If I had to pick another winner it would have to be the shot of the chairlift in the fog. There is something almost magical about that picture.
Key word there is personal, meaning two things; one being that just because the result didn't go the way you voted doesn't mean that anyone is trying to tell you you're wrong, and secondly that if the result hasn't gone the way you voted, it doesn't make the competition format invalid or the voting community wrong or artistically immature or unappreciative. They're all sick shots, all the starters and all the remaining contestants. Your vote for the POY is sorta like saying thank you to the photographer (in my opinion).
This is pinkBIKE, not pinkCHAIRLIFT. That chairlift shot is great don't get me wrong, but omg a foggy chairlift! That's what our sport is all about! Please. This photo should be a great shot photography wise, but this website is about biking. I want a picture that gets me hella stoked when I see it. Riding is important in this contest. It's a shame a lot of the great shots got eliminated already. Please #4, take it home. If that chairlift shot gets any farther, then I will be surprised and pissed. The biking photo of the year shouldn't be of a chairlift.
Who else saw this "ad" on the PB homepage?
You just lost my vote.... are you kidding me? What kind of a contest is soliciting votes by bribing with some sweet components?
POY could't be just like some dirt on camera like #1! Also it couldn't be some little silhouette on #4.