Winners of the January Photo Contest!!!

[AndyS]

Congratulations to the winners of this month's contest. It was one of the more difficult to vote in because the entries were sooooo good!

First place is At the Lake by Callilily.



Second place is Water Lilies by Mousetoescamper.



Third place by a single vote is Under the Brooklyn Bridge by Mz Pip.



We had a number of first time contestants and I hope to see them back in future contests!

Join me in celebrating every entry and every photographer who shared their travels and vision with us all!

[brer cat]

1. Great photos!

[blogslug]

2. Congratulations!

good stuff

[HAB911]

3. Congratulations to all!

[FalloutShelter]

4. Beautiful shots all.

Congrats to winners and participants.

[pandr32]

5. Excellent, all!

[blm]

6. Wow. Really great shots.

[panader0]

7. All of the submissions were great. Good contest.

[2naSalit]

8. Congrats!

It was hard to choose when the voting was going on.

[niyad]

9. Congratulations.

[MLAA]

10. Congrats! Wonderful line up of top shots!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Congrats to the winners! These are phenomenal photos!

I too hope to see more of our new contestants.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

12. Congratulations to the winners, all great shots.

It was great to see the participation in this one. I hope we do more contests like it.

[judesedit]

13. Thank you, AndyS, and thanks to all. It was really difficult to choose a best.

They were all exceptionally good.

[denvine]

14. Congratulations!

All beautiful photos!

[democrank]

15. Congratulations to all

Truly beautiful and uplifting

[ancianita]

16. Congratulations!

LOVE these photos.

[TeamProg]

17. Really nice! nt

[calimary]

18. Dayum! I can see all three made into greeting cards,

note cards, even post cards.

You could make these up by the dozen, using four of each of these, and give sets as gifts. With picture postcards, you don’t need an envelope.

Maybe DU could offer these and those of other outstanding DUer photographers as a fundraiser, or “make a donation and we send you DUer-art thank-you cards! You’ll be supporting DU and our artist/photographer members!”

[I_UndergroundPanther]

19. Love the dramatic clouds in the 1st

So many kinds of water lilies ! In the 2nd pic

Love the reflected light of the 3rd looks like a painting.

[a kennedy]

20. and oh my.....I actually picked em all IN THAT ORDER!!! All photos are absolutely spectacular.

Congratulations to all winners, and of course ALL those who entered their photos.

[edhopper]

21. All 3 are wonderful

And I want to thank you all for putting me in the finals.

[Solly Mack]

22. Congrats Calilily!!! Mousetoescamper! Mz Pip!

[okaawhatever]

23. Well done!!! nt

[JudyM]

24. Great entries! I liked this contest so much more because of the "real photos only" rule.

[AndyS]

26. Oh, Judy, these are not 'real photos' any more than most of the photoshoped

images you see anywhere else. Cell phones manipulate the image as much or more than most of us photographers do. They adjust exposure, contrast, sharpness, color saturation and a host of other parameters unbeknownst to the user. They literally look at millions of other images on the web and attempt to make your picture look like some imaginary ideal.

At this point it is all ones and zeros.

[JudyM]

28. If I take a shot of a dog it looks like the dog I'm looking at. Enlarging the dog's eyes to enhance

them afterward is no longer a photo of the dog I was looking at. Arguing a lack of absolute purity in the mechanics of the shot doesn’t change that fact.

When I look at the beautiful winning photo I can appreciate the composition and the subtleties of the colors. I enjoy the beauty of nature in the photo, as it is, regardless of the variables. A colorized sky may be prettier in a way, but it’s less what was *captured* by the artist, which is the greatest part of photography, IMO.

[AndyS]

30. So, is it still a 'real photo' if I shoot a colorful sunset and the phone all be itself deepens the

colors making them different from what your eye saw? If I use post processing to remove a distracting power line, is that not a 'real photo'? It still looks like a sunset, right? The kitten with big eyes still looked like a kitten didn't it?

IMO to restrict a photographer to only the pixels a camera produces is akin to putting handcuffs on Vincent Van Gogh because to represent the sky as he did in Starry Night is an abomination, right?

Forgive my frustration but for the first hundred years of photography it wasn't 'art' because it was a perfect redition produced by a machine now I'm told it's not 'art' because the photographer has freedom to deviate away from that perfect copy and use imagination to elicit an emotional response.

Oh, and using the word 'capture' is offensive to me. I don't 'capture' anything. It takes work to do what I do. 'Capture' infers pure happenstance, a lucky accident, pure serendipity. That is not what I do.

IMFO.

[JudyM]

31. Bowing out to leave this thread to well-deserved congratulatory replies.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

25. very nice

[Trueblue1968]

27. PRETTY

[Better Days Ahoy]

29. Lovely lovely photos! 🎉 to everyone!

A nice wake-up for Thursday morning!

[hwmnbn]

32. Folks, I rarely do this...

but I saved all these photos to my computer because they are all "wallpaper" quality.

Thank you for sharing your gifts with us.

[wendyb-NC]

33. Yay, beautiful photos

Thank you, all. Well done.

[Callalily]

34. Oh wow! I just happened to see this post. I'm honored!

Thanks AndyS for running the contest. It's always a challenge.

Thanks to everyone who voted and expressed kind and encouraging words.

And thanks to all the entrants. Good contest with oh so many wonderful photos.

[AndyS]

35. Sorry, I should have PMed you but I assumed you were following the

contest. My bad and late congratulations on the win.

You get the honor of picking next month's theme! I'd say check in with next month's host but that's YOU!

[Mousetoescamper]

36. Congratulations, Callalily! I thought that yours and Mz Pip's entries would be among the winners

after viewing the preliminaries. Congratulations, Mz Pip! My winning second place--and by only one vote-- was a surprise. I thought my entry was well-composed, and not bad for a photo taken with an iPhone 6, but not a winner. I had a replacement ready and was about to post it until finding that the preliminaries had fortunately closed. The replacement photo was political, provocative and not in keeping with the spirit of the contest.

Thanks to all of the voters and to the entrants for sharing their photos. Thanks, CaliforniaPeggy, for your contest theme. I think you've succeeded in encouraging more DUers to participate. And thanks, AndyS, for hosting the contest.