Fifteen years! That’s how long we’ve been publishing this photography contest, and it seems like yesterday that we looked over numerous photo entries for the first time.
Technology has changed a bit since that first year in 2002, when the vast majority of photos arrived as prints, slides and transparencies. Very few were digital. There was a lot more scanning on our part, and frankly, it took more time. Fast forward to 2016 and the total opposite is true – only about 5 percent of the entries arrived as actual print photographs. I’m sure that the vast majority – probably 99 percent of the population – now use digital cameras for photography. And for a publisher, this is a good thing, because even if a photo is taken using a digital camera and then a print is made, the quality of the image goes down if a scan then has to be made of that print. Long story short, for next year, it’s best to just enter photos to the contest as digital images and skip that generation of the print.
Every year – and this one is no different – I am impressed with the quality of photographs that are submmitted. And like every year, so many great photos don’t make it to the winner’s circle. But you can now see these “staff picks” photos in our digital magazine, which you can download as a free app through Apple, Google or by visiting LifeintheFingerLakes.com.
– Mark Stash, Editor
The Grand Prize winner this year is Mandy Applin with her photo “Lighting the Way.” The other contest winners are listed below. Subscribers to the magazine can enjoy all the winning photographs right now with their issue that arrived conveniently in their mailbox! For those who don’t currently subscribe, please click here to see which newsstands carry the magazine. Also, the winning photos and the Staff Pick photos can be viewed via the FREE magazine app, available through Apple and Google.
Grand Prize
Grand Prize “Lighting the Way” “I was at Letchworth State Park to photograph the Milky Way and was surprised and delighted when a cargo train crossed the Portageville Bridge. This is the shot of a lifetime for me.” Mandy Applin • Pittsford
Color
First Place
“Female Ruby-throated hummingbird”
Larry Heins • Caledonia
Second Place
“Spring Herons”
Sylvia Steen • Nedrow, New York
Third Place
“Red Moon, Red Church – Corning”
Chris Walters • Corning
Black & White
First Place
“Showered”Mendon Ponds Park
Anne Marie Maier • Penfield
Second Place
“Taste of Fall”
Bridget Aleo • Churchville
Third Place
“Palmyra Canal Park”
Dave Folts • Walworth
Digitally Altered
First Place
“Webster”
Joann K. Long • Bloomfield
Second Place
“Pre-Storm on Nations Road in Geneseo”
Kristine J. Tenalio • Geneseo
Third Place
“Cascading Over Ithaca”
“This composition of Ithaca Falls is a focus stack of two long exposures, allowing the foreground of the bedrock, comprised of the Genesee Group (Ithaca Formation), and the iconic falls to be in sharp focus while reducing the effects of diffraction at smaller apertures.”
Caldwell Payne • Cortland
Honorable Mention
“Heron at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge” – color
Vernon L Greene • Syracuse
“Dakota” – color
Justin Hausner • Waterloo
“Weeping Willow in Winter at Sonnenberg Gardens”
– black and white
Phil Hilden • Victor
“Winter Angel”
– black and white
Al Clark • Rochester
“Canadaigua Hut Sunset”
– digitally altered
Eric Sutton • Horseheads
“Dry August Cumulonimbus”
“In the middle of one of our historically worst droughts, the view over the parched corn field is of monstrous clouds that tease with false promises of rain.” – digitally altered
Llewellyn Lafford • Penn Yan
