Manila-born photographer wins Epson International 2014 Pano Awards
Earlier this year, global digital imaging leader Epson invited professional and amateur photographers around the world to enter The Epson International Pano Awards (www.thepanoawards.com) and compete for approximately $40,000 in cash and prizes.
This year, the competition received 3,971 entries from 870 photographers in 54 countries. The fifth Epson International Pano Awards is dedicated to the art of panoramic photography.
The overall winner of the 2014 Open competition is Manila-born Dennis Ramos from the USA. His winning image is also first in the Open – Built Environment category.
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| The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, St. Petersburg, Florida (Dennis Ramos, overall Open winner) |
Dennis said, “It was a beautiful cloudless day with some patches of rolling fog over the bridge. My friend and I decided to go fishing that mid-afternoon. I found out that my reel wasn't working so I grabbed my camera gear instead. I took a lot of shots around including this long exposure panoramic shot of the bridge. It took me a lot of time waiting and shooting in between the fog to get a good exposure. While waiting during long exposure times, I wished I had my fishing rod as well.”
Ramos moved to the United States of America after finishing a degree in medical science. His interest in digital photography began in 2008, starting with artistic portraiture using mixed lighting and eventually evolving into fine art landscape.
In his Facebook page, Ramos expressed his enthusiasm about the award. “I am extremely honored to be awarded as the 2014 Open Photographer of the Year by The Epson International Pano Awards for my image "Skyway"! This is a tremendous honor seeing my image along the beautiful works of great artists in the top 50 images in the Open, Amateur, and VR/360 categories. Thank you to The Epson International Pano Awards and big congratulations to all the winners this year!” said Ramos.
The overall winner of the 2014 Amateur competition is Ben Neale (galleryearth.com.au) from Australia. His winning image was first in the Amateur – Nature category, and remarkably also the winner of the Open – Nature category and overall Open runner-up! In addition, Ben is runner-up in Amateur – Nature, with a second stunning aerial image, and also wins Highest Scoring Aerial Image!
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| ‘Light’ (Ben Neale, overall Amateur winner and Open – Nature winner) galleryearth.com.au |
Ben says, “This was captured in Arnhem Land, Australia. The birds are Australian Brolgas, it was taken from a powered paraglider and is a 3 image stitch. I submitted this image because I found the abstract nature of the clay lake and the contrasting subtle interplay between the Brolgas very compelling. It was a tricky shot as I was out shooting landscapes that day at 35mm and knew I would have to get very low to capture the Brolgas in great detail, with a lot of sharp turns and some near misses it all came together in just 3 frames out of 200.”
Ben’s technique of using a paraglider to go ‘above and beyond’ the normal perspective has resulted in an incredible performance in the competition this year.
The winner of the VR competition this year is none other than Dmitiy Moiseenko of Russia. His incredible image 'Kamchatka, bears, Kurille Lake' proves, however, that his skills are not only in aerial photography as part of the Airpano Team, but also much closer to the ground.....and hungry bears!
"Without a doubt this world-class photographic competition represents an ever increasing standard of quality in both image capture and print. Each year we are seeing more and more captivating entries and the outstanding quality continues to impress me," said Craig Heckenberg, Business Unit Manager for Epson Australia.
"Epson is very proud to continue our support of this global competition," said Craig.
Prizes include an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 printer, an Epson Stylus Pro 4900 printer, and an Epson EB-1775 Ultra-Slim Projector.
Advances in digital photography and editing software have resulted in a surge in the popularity of image stitching, especially in the panoramic format. Panoramic film photography also remains alive and well.
The Epson International Pano Awards showcases the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and is the largest competition for panoramic photography.
The judging panel includes some of the world's top panoramic photographers and industry professionals, including Jeff Mitchum, Andris Apse, William Long, Helmut Hirler, Michelle Novak, Dylan Toh, Chris Collacott, Stefan Hefele, Timothy Poulton, Hans Gasser, Aaron Spence, Scott Highton, Thomas Erh, Carlos Chegado, and Bill Bailey.
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