92
|
SPRING 2014
IMAGING
J
udging the Oceans Views
photography contest took
hours. It was not because of
indecision but because of these
extraordinary images that will
stop you in your tracks or make
you back up and take another look. The
experience was like reading a global, visual
atlas of the sea. The geographic range of
the imagery in the contest is astounding.
Once-hard-to-get places are now mainstream
destinations that attract curious and
ambitious photographers with an appetite
for improving their portfolios. Truly remote
and “edge of wilderness” places are no
longer the exclusive domain of seasoned
professionals with a magazine budget
behind them. If you can find it on a map,
you can get there, shoot it and bring back a
set of images that stir the creative bones of
others to reach farther, experiment, explore
and create.
Underwater image making smashes new
ceilings in nearly every publication I look
at. There is no one single expert or best
photographer or superhero photographer
who gets it right with every frame. I hate
the words “best,” “most” and “legend,”
which somehow get applied to shooters
when they have been around long enough
to earn some title. Looking at the images in
this contest I see images that could grace a
cover, become iconic and have the power
to create change. We are all out there
swimming around with cameras, drawing
on curiosity, passion, ambition, talent and
technology. The Ocean Views photo contest
is a collection of passion and ambition that
translates into a collective that can make
your head spin. I like looking at images that
make me want to go there — that motivate
me. Several images in this contest motivated
me, got my attention and made me ask
questions. That’s what good imagery does.
In every category I see a combination of
talent and technology at work. I see point-
and-shoot frames that could be magazine
covers. I see environments that would fail on
400-speed film that leap to life and become
electric in digital. Sensor technology has
transformed new shooters into good shooters
Ocean Views 2014
- The
Power
of Imaging
