Contests

“Most people cannot be in the high mountains in the middle of the night in winter. That makes this photo intriguing and catches the attention of people, their imagination. For me, it’s very gratifying to be able to share these moments that many don’t witness, and introduce them to some of the world’s hidden magical views.”

“I wanted to frame the steaming train with the snowy winter forest scenery and with the edit put the focus even more on the train and the huge cloud of steam produced by it. The surrounding forest shouldn’t be that important, which is why I edited it a little darker and lightened up the train and its pillar of steam.”

“My country is still unknown to the world and has many stereotypes. If I were to describe my country to a person who knows nothing about it, I would say: Kyrgyzstan is like Switzerland 100 years ago, and 5 times bigger. It has more than 2000 lakes, 40000 rivers and 93% is mountain.”

“I love to show others my beautiful home, no matter the season. Though now with the snow, I made sure to preserve the deep tones during post-processing, providing a nice contrast to the white of the snow. The curve in the road is easy to see from the chosen perspective and also shows the slope covered in trees. Going up just a few meters was enough to showcase this.”

“I couldn’t trust my own eyes. I saw something I had never seen before: unbelievably shaped clouds, like huge drops of water, being held up by the sky, threatening to fall down but magically being held. It honestly felt like being in a twilight zone. Instantly I grabbed my camera, shouted at the boys, and pointed wildly to the sky. All were stunned.”

“My winning picture was captured in this area, in Oulanka National Park to be precise. This is prettiest of all 41 national parks in Finland if you ask me. On that day we went for a little hike with my colleagues and friends from work on our day off. The name of the place is Myllykoski and it is incredible to see it on any day of the year. The nostalgic old mill standing over the Myllykoski rapids, with the water flowing down…you can feel and hear the power of nature around you.”

“With the winning picture I wanted to create a classic composition. To do so, I captured the hilly landscape as the foreground, the small huts as the middle distance, and the mountain range with the Orion as the background.”

“When taking photos that morning, I wanted to capture the peaceful ambiance of the lakeside, the moody atmosphere, and try to convey how surreal it felt to be standing there, like something out of a dream.”

“I had been waiting a long time to get such weather conditions to come together in favor of the shot I had in mind. So, although I was hesitant to fly the drone in the given circumstances, I decided to bring the drone up in the air and kept flying until I got the shot I wanted. When I pressed the shutter and knew I got it, I felt intensely happy – getting up early in the cold winter pays off!”

“The world has some amazing views and natural phenomena for us to become aware of. That I can experience at least a part of these is something to be thoroughly grateful for. As a photographer, it makes me happy to share these moments and enable others to see different parts of the world as well.”