It is Fun To Win Something From Time to Time

Anyone that knows me knows that I love to compete.  I live to compete.  However, when it comes to photography…to me, there really is no competition.  A photo you like, I might hate…so it is a matter of taste.  And…the competition world wide is so strong that it really comes down to a judges decision as to what wins and what does not.  Not only that, it also comes down to being in the right place at the right time…and some of those right places are distant, exotic, hard to get to and expensive to access…and then you have to get lucky with the light and scenery or animals.  So…I would never ever feel all puffed up about winning a photo contest…I know who the great photographers are and they do to…so I consider any luck I have in a contest as the good fortune to have gotten a very nice shot that will now be seen by a large number of people…stoked.

I had that good luck this week.  I entered a contest put on by Oneeyeland…a world wide contest that attracts some pretty good photographers.  Subject…Wildlife.  I entered eight photos…all made the finals and four earned awards.  When you add up all the points that generated, I ended up being picked as one of the top ten Wildlife Photographers world wide…second in the USA.  Here are the entries and how they did…

I call this Mara River Jumper and it won second place in the category of Other Animals.  Big thanks to Jeff Vanuga and Craig Sholley for their getting me in the right spot at the right time.  Our tour was put together by Thompson Safaris and Natures Best Photography Magazine…and they did a great job.  Jeff is a highly honored photographer and Craig is as well, plus he is the Senior Vice President of the African Wildlife Foundation.

I got this beautiful leopard shot because Todd Gustafson, whose tour we were on, put us on the right tree at the right time.  Thanks Todd.  Todd has a great program on PBS called To The Ends of the Earth, voiced by Jane Goodall.  I am fortunate to serve on the Ends of the Earth Conservation board of directors.  We are going with Todd to Madagascar later this year. I earned a Bronze award in the Animal Portraits category with this one.

My unhappy hippo shot.  This guy was a grumpy as they get.  Once again, Todd put us on him at the right time of day. Earned me a Bronze award for the hippo shot.

Won a Bronze  award for this guy…same leopard as you saw earlier up on a branch.  He had come down the tree to grab a rib for a snack…fortunately, not mine.

Taken as the wildebeests and zebras exited the Mara River on the opposite side…total chaos.  This shot and the following ones made the finals, but did not earn an award.  Just making the finals in a world wide contest is pretty satisfying to me.

A cheat running for his life after he had a failed attempt to grab a young hartebeest.  They nearly got him.

This is a Kori Bustard…a four and a half foot tall bird that can fly.  Todd, Linda and I shot him for a half hour and I was so lucky to get this shot at his best.

We took this at Sunset Ridge in the Serengeti.  Again…Todd put us in just the right position.  This was taken with a 600 mm lens with a doubler, so 1200mm…he was a long ways away.

My thanks to Eli Martinez for talking me into the adventure of a lifetime…to get in the water with completely wild…huge…salt water crocs…no cage, no guns…just our camera housing to keep them off of us.  This was taken at Banco Chinchorro about four hours off the Mexico/Belize border.  Scariest few days of my life.

And this is what it looks like when one tries to bite you.  Sounded like a shot gun going off.  We called this one Toothy, because his front teeth were so large that he had driven them through his snout…not his nostrils.  He missed or I would not be typing this with both hands.

So…I thought I had eight that made it to finals, but it looks like there were these ten.  Stoked.  I am particularly happy because these are some of my favorite wildlife photos I’ve ever taken.  I made a purposeful decision to just enter my favorites and not try to out think what might win…and it came out well.

You may recall that Linda won Travel Photographer of the Year…men and women for the USA from this same contest.  I remember because she reminds me daily.  Well, she did well in this contest and I will write a blog on her photos in the next couple of days.  Proud of her.

And, yes, I know I have a completely unfair advantage to get these shots…I have a great mentor in C.J. Kale, a great photo partner and wife…Linda, I know some of the best photographers in the world and they take me places, I have fabulous Sony gear, the time of a retiree to travel and the means to travel.  I’ve also LEARNED patience…a bit late in life, but useful now.  I also have a reason to keep trying to improve my photography…our gallery with CJ…Lava Light Galleries, Inc.  The very top Mara River Jumper was one of the two biggest sales of my life…and that always puts a smile on my face.

Aloha.