“A fractal is a complex pattern that repeats itself indefinitely over different scales – one example would be the branches on a tree, where the basic branching pattern is repeated on a smaller and smaller scale towards the top of the tree”
I like fractals for their visual attraction but not much beyond that.
All good!
We are having fun showcasing some of the images. There is so much wonderful talent out there and we are happy to promote it as best we can!
Hi Igor,
I can assure your the big winners weren’t ‘enhanced’ . In fact the grand winner was crafted using a medium format film camera on Fuji Velvia 50 and with nothing done to the scan at all, not even a crop. Doug Koepsel and Franka Kapler’s images (first in Intimate and second in Grand landscape) have so little done to the raw files after the Adobe Standard profile that I can reproduce them with just a small tweak of contrast. Michael Frye’s image has a bit more dodging and burning to handle the light in the mist but quite a bit less than you’ll see Ansel Adam’s adjust his classic Yosemite prints. Eric Bennet, Carl Smorenburg, Tobias Richter, they’re all pretty much straight out of camera. Ben Horne’s images have had a lot of processing but if you’ve inverted colour negatives before, you’ll understand why 
I’d be interested in which images you think were ‘polished or enhanced’ in a way that disadvantaged your entry?
This trust in the photograph is one of the reasons we started the competition - so that if you see an image included in the final selection, it’s been compared with the RAW files to ensure that the end result is not deceiving. The fact that at least half of the top photographs have virtually nothing done to them is a testament to the field skills of the photographers.
I also wanted to mention that we don’t stop people entering images that have been entered in other competitions before, only if they have been highly placed in high profile competitions, i.e. first second or third in something like the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. If you’re just commended or you were a winner in a local competition then that wouldn’t bar your images from submission.
If what I said implied that I felt my entry was disadvantaged I did not mean it. That’s a spin in a direction it was not intended. In fact, once again, my words are being blown out of proportion. I didn’t really make a study of the entries. I was more commenting on my own processing abilities than on the competition as a whole. After the comments that were added above I did go back and had a second look and found the series on Iceland to look enhanced. I don’t know who made them and it really does not matter. I think I could have made some changes to my image without appearing to be processed. That’s all I meant. Please do not make it anything more than that. I am not critiquing the competition in any way. Please do not take it that way.
Hi Igor - I wrote the email last night while tired and my question seemed quite “passive-aggressive” so apologies for that, I didn’t mean it that way.
Hans Strand’s Iceland images are peculiar in that way - I have one on my wall that looks alien in “Minor White” sort of way. They’re probably more processed than many but still not a great deal of processing in my opinion. The top one in this section has been processed the most (mostly about shadow recovery, saturation and evening out the tonal range).
I’m really glad you entered as your photo of the Yucca and Boojum (I think) was one of my favourites in the competition…
It looks as though a printed book will come out of all this. The delivery date will be around April. I’m quite excited about it as I’ve never seen one of my images in book form.
Wow congratulations! That’s marvelous.
