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Photo contest "Blue" - These are the winners

Reading time: 10 minutes - October 12, 2021 - by Leonie M?ller

Matching the upcoming issue of Schnappschuss magazine, we have again launched a photo contest. This time we would like to dedicate this issue to one color at a time. After all, color is an important tool in photography. Especially the concentration on one color is something very special. Our first Color Edition is 'Blue', which is also the theme of the photo contest.

More than 4,500 pictures have reached us! Whether landscape, portrait or architecture, you were able to surprise us with everyday but also unusual motifs and give free rein to your wealth of ideas. You made it particularly difficult for us with your variety of motifs, creativity and the enormously high quality. After all, we were able to award ten places this time instead of the previous five. We would like to say a big "Thank you!" to all 1,780 participants! That was really outstanding. We would like to congratulate the winners and say THANK YOU!

Place One Photo Contest Blue1. Place Robert Schlesinger

The winning photo - "Blue hour"

First place goes to Robert Schlesinger with his fantastic drone shot of the morning blue hour over the rooftops of Berlin. He had planned the shot for quite some time and was able to execute it in October 2020 due to some lucky coincidences. Due to several special weather parameters, there was ground fog that morning that rose no higher than 75 meters in height and a weather alert for flying weather notified him of the appropriate circumstances. So at 06:00 in the morning he moved to an office roof to overcome the cloud cover and capture the rare weather event in Berlin. We think: a justified 1st place, congratulations!

About Robert Schlesinger:

Robert Schlesinger has been a freelance photographer since 2017, specializing in lifestyle, people and arial shots, and before that he had been working as a photojournalist for dpa for 10 years.

More of his work can be found here:
website
instagram

2. Place Benny Kasper

2nd place - Magical Milky Way

Second place goes to Benny Kasper, whose magical shot of the Milky Way captivated us in particular. He chose his subject because of the symmetry of the two benches he discovered on the promenade of Laziese on Lake Garda during one of the Lost Places tours he took through Italy. In contrast to this straight and coherent composition, the wavy lines of the promenade's striped floor flow like vanishing points into the center of the image, creating a unique shot with the dark blue night sky. Since the sky was fortunately cloudless that night, he was able to capture the best view of the Milky Way with the right timing. Congratulations to the second place!

About Benny Kasper

Since 2006, the 39-year-old from Allg?u has already been active in the field of lost places and landscape photography and also prefers to stay outside in nature with his camera equipment to capture special motifs like this one. See more here:

Instagram ofBenny Kasper

3. Place Ute Schm?cker

3rd place - "Hit the blue"

Third place goes to Ute Schm?cker, whose interpretation of the theme hit the "blue" with her submitted motif. The photo was taken in July 2019 during a day trip through Uetrecht. She writes us: "[...] I was on the road at the time with the EOS 70D, had only a wide angle and the 85mm fixed focal length with me and little to no idea about architectural photography. I mean, it was a student apartment building and this red cloth of course immediately stood out. Unfortunately, I could not zoom in as desired without a real telephoto lens. Therefore the picture is only a detail. I always remember this tour very fondly [...] ."

Ute Schm?cker has convinced us with her eye for details and color contrasts and we are happy with her about a great third place.

About Ute Schm?cker

The 59-year-old has "worked her way up" in the course of her photography career from 2012 with her camera equipment from an EOS 550D to the double-digit models and currently to the 5D Mark IV and is happy to be able to expand this and capture new motifs.

4. Place Sven Hallmann

4. Square - Shopping cart queue

Sven Hallmann's minimalist photo on the theme of "blue" was taken rather accidentally but no less appropriately, in the parking lot of a furniture store. The neatly lined up shopping carts in front of the big blue wall caught his eye directly and he photographed the motif with his Olympus EM10II and the 17mm lens from Olympus. The motif is still one of his favorites to this day, and we couldn't agree more. Congratulations to the fourth place!

About Sven Hallmann:

Sven Hallmann from Bremen is a street photographer with heart and soul. "Street photography is relaxation for me, that's my biggest goal. But of course I want to bring other people closer to street photography and inspire them for it." However, in his social media can also be found partly portraits and architecture shots, which he also likes to implement.

Instagram

5. Place Frank Seltmann

Place 5 - Change of perspective

Frank Seltmann inspires us with his shot of a staircase in a hotel in Dresden. By experimenting a bit with the white balance, he achieved the bluish tint of the finished photo in post-processing. We are captivated by the motif's spiraling, ascending escape puct perspective into the heights of the stairwell and the interplay of the angular and round shapes of the lamps and stairs.

About Frank Seltmann:

Frank Seltmann has been a photographer of special staircases since 2008.

The Dresden native shares these shots on his social media channel, among other places, and has made it his mission "to show the good and beautiful sides of this city, but also not to hide the less good and unsightly corners."

To his Instagram account

6th place Daniel Geisbauer

6th place - Contrasts under water

Sixth place on the theme of "Blue" goes to Daniel Geisbauer, who sent in a photo of his family trip to the vivarium of the Karlsruhe Natural History Museum. He was particularly attracted by the "contrast between the transparent jellyfish and the beautiful blue aquarium". The fascinating picture was taken with a focal length of 17mm at 1/60 second and aperture 5 at ISO 400. Out of consideration for other visitors and in order to capture the perfect position as well as the optimal pose of the jellyfish, a lot of patience was necessary during the picture, which he took without a tripod.

However, we think this effort was well worth it!

About Daniel Geisbauer


Since his youth, Daniel Geisbauer has been passionate about photography and has been a member of the Film- und Fotoclub Durmersheim und Umgebung e.V. since 2005. His photographic focus lies in the areas of, nature, animals and details with occasional detours to architecture, which he captures with a Canon EOS 7D and his Sigma 17-70mm, F2,0-4.

7th place Johannes Kowalewski

Rank 7 - Deserted volleyball court

A deserted beach with a volleyball court that would be perfectly occupied under normal circumstances. But not in pandemic times. Johannes Kowalewski documents this change in his submitted photo. The picture was taken "on a beautiful late summer day during Corona 2020 on the Curonian Spit in Latvia". Even in the most beautiful summer weather, no one is lingering on the beach or playing volleyball - the feeling of loneliness and surreality is especially staged and intensified by the long exposure. A wonderful shot and documentation that rightly falls under the top 10, congratulations!

About Johannes Kowalewski


The passionate landscape and nature photographer from the north of Germany has always loved being in nature and found his passion for photography when he documented his hikes through New Zealand in 2017. In the meantime, he is particularly enthusiastic about smaller and quieter scenes in addition to large landscape panoramas: In particular, I like places and moments that are detached from their actual surroundings and stand alone - because this creates images that usually do not allow any conclusions about the place of origin and are therefore particularly valuable to me. You can find more nature shots of different seasons by Johannes Kowalewski here:

Instagram
website

Place 8. J?rgen Hanke

8th place - Minimalism

Eighth place goes to J?rgen Hanke with his minimalist image of a noise barrier on the B236 in Dortmund. The picture was taken in October 2019 on a sunny autumn day with a cloudless sky and hits the theme of our competition to the point. Since less is often more, this motif convinces us with its graphic forms and simplicity.

9th place - Christian Zink; Model: Natalie Sch?nberger

9th place - Portrait underwater

Christian Zink takes 9th place with his underwater portrait in the historic Art Nouveau Gotha swimming pool. The photo is characterized by the division of the image into two parts by the water surface and the fact that the architecture of the swimming pool is worth seeing as well as the events under water. The blue and cream tones as well as the play of light under water in combination with the fabulously styled model create an enchanting overall result.

About Christian Zink

Christian Zink lives with his family in Weimar and has been a sports photographer for over 20 years. He has been diving since 1997 and started underwater photography over 15 years ago. "Photography is my passion. For many years I focused on sports photography, especially martial arts. For over 20 years, I have also been photographing underwater. For private clients I offer for example baby belly shoots or wedding photos under and also above water, for commercial clients professional advertising photos and setcard photos for underwater models. I regularly organize coaching sessions in underwater photography for other photographers at home and abroad (most recently Bali). Besides that, you can also book me above water for weddings and setcard shoots, for example for the wolfdog shoot in winter, which I developed and offer exclusively."

Website
Instagram
Facebook

Youtube

Place 10. Jochen Schmidt

Place 10 - Balkan anemone

Last but not least: Jochen Schmidt is the 10th winner of the photo contest with his macro shot of the Balkan anemone (Anemone blanda). The final result is a stack of 80 shots, photographed with the Sony A850 with an aperture of 5.6, 1/15 seconds and a focal length of 80 mm. The cold-warm contrast and interesting exposure, which was achieved with LED lights, really highlight the dew on the petals and their intense blue.

About Jochen Schmidt

Jochen Schmidt from the Lahn-Dill Bergland photographs mainly in nature and works the last 6 years mainly with the focusstacking technique in the macro-micro range.

Website
Instagram

Conclusion Photo Contest Blue 2021

With the pictures of the ten winners, we have only shown a small selection of unique and interesting variations on how the color 'blue' can be captured photographically. Many images just barely did not make it into the top ten, as the selection was too large.

We would like to thank all participants and look forward to receiving interesting entries for the upcoming contests in the future. The next chances are waiting soon at our online photo days . Until then, we wish you continued fun with photography and all the moments that can be associated with it and captured!

Photo contest "Blue" - All images

The prizes

1st place: 1,000? voucher for Canon
Canon offers brilliant cameras and lenses as well as brilliant binoculars and printers.
CanonMarkenstore

2nd place: 1,000? voucher for Tamron
The camera is one thing, the lens is another. Tamron has been one of the best manufacturers for lenses for decades.
Tamronbrand store

3rd place: 200? voucher for Benro
A sturdy tripod belongs to every camera equipment.
Benro overview

4th place. Place: 100? voucher for Moab
Good photos deserve a perfect print - the paper comes from Moab.
Moabarticle

5. Place: 100? voucher for Tenba
Tenba offers the perfect bags and backpacks the photo equipment.
TenbaArticle

6. Place: 50? voucher for Nissin
Let there be light - with the flash units from Nissin.
NissinArticle

7th place: 50? voucher for ZhongYi
Compact lenses at a small price.
ZhongYiArticle

8. 1st place: 20? voucher each for Berenstargh
Perhaps the most important accessory: rechargeable batteries.
Berenstarghitems

9th ###p-l-u-s## 10th place: 20? voucher each for Hoya
Filters: important protection and creative possibilities.
Hoyaitems

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