Photo Competition
Photo Competition Winner - January '13 by Tom Bowett
- Judged by
- Paul Goldstein
- Trip code
- AON
- Countries Visited
- Burma
- Winner
- January 2013
Each year when judging a particularly big photo competition I have to trawl through countless festival shots. I frequently find them intrusive and uninspiring, it is possible to be colourful yet lack vibrancy. This is vibrant, massively so. I can almost hear the firecrackers and smell the cordite and gunpowder. The depth of field is deep, the shutter speed not too high and I cannot see any face detail. Good. The merest sniff of a temple in the right hand corner is enough for perspective, especially as 90% of all Burma photos are just temples. This is an exciting photo, an image that has not been arrived at by accident. It is also important, Burma is changing, this photographer has shown us that. Top work Tom!
Previous Winning entries
There are areas of this that are a little 'hot' (pretentious digital term for over-exposed), but I can live with that. There is no idea of scale - I can certainly live with that, I don't know where it…
Christine, a clearly an accomplished photographer, sent in a gallery of emotive, brilliantly captured candid images and portraits from her time in Ethiopia. In picking the best one, I chose the photog…
Sometimes black and white is used to disguise mediocrity, not here. This is a light-hearted moment which has been caught with sensitivity by the photographer. The background is wonderful, the grainine…
Each year when judging a particularly big photo competition I have to trawl through countless festival shots. I frequently find them intrusive and uninspiring, it is possible to be colourful yet lack …
This photograph has everything: great contrast, audacious slow shutter speed and a hint of mystery – outstanding. It was taken on one of Paul Goldstein’s special photographic departures, but I’l…





















