BBC WPTY Results

[Ken Watkins]

The excuse that this was hard work by the photographer is interesting but does not hold up. Yes it is cold in the Himalayas, but when you have a large team of assistants to assist you and you are being paid to stay there then that is your choice, do not claim this as skill. How many of us could set up 14 IR triggered cameras (even if they were cheap models) and come up with such average images after 10 months speaks for luck rather than skill. Locally to me we have a research group studying Leopard called Cape Leopard Trust, they are doing very worthwhile research into an elusive animal and have "captured" many good images but I would not conceive that prior to now any would have considered they should be entered in a photographic competition
http://www.capeleopard.org.za/


At least nobody here has said it is a rare picture, of an endangered animal, there are in fact considerably more Snow Leopards than Tigers it is just that they are in areas where not many people go. Just google Snow Leopard, I do not think the judges did they just believed what they were told.

[Ramon M. Casares]

The excuse that this was hard work by the photographer is interesting but does not hold up. Yes it is cold in the Himalayas, but when you have a large team of assistants to assist you and you are being paid to stay there then that is your choice, do not claim this as skill.

So then, all of the photographers out there that can travel the world exclusively to take photographs are not great photographers but just lucky guys that can afford it, period? :)

[Arthur Morris]

So then, all of the photographers out there that can travel the world exclusively to take photographs are not great photographers but just lucky guys that can afford it, period? :)

Ramon, Your smiley face has confused me. What is it that you want to say? Is you commment intended to be serious?

[Arthur Morris]

So then, all of the photographers out there that can travel the world exclusively to take photographs are not great photographers but just lucky guys that can afford it...

OK, Ramon says that the above is a serious statement. I would argue that his statement is convoluted at best If not ridiculous).

#1: Most but not all of the photographers that travel the world, like Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, and Andy Rouse to name three, are great photographers. Each of them has worked incredibly hard and deserve all the honors they have been accorded.

#2: They are able to travel the world for various reasons. Neither luck nor personal wealth has anything to do with their success and their ability to travel the world.

The issue that I originally raised is that the creation of the WPOTY winning image had everything to do with luck and craft than with artistic vision and skill.

[Cliff Beittel]

. . . The issue that I originally raised is that the creation of the WPOTY winning image had everything to do with luck and craft than with artistic vision and skill. . . .

. . . I so think that it is a great image but do not think that it was worthy of the top prize since the photographer had zero to do with the composition and zero to do with capturing a dramatic pose . . .

Arthur,

A few points in opposition. To my mind, craft and skill are the same thing. So that leaves luck versus vision, composition, and pose (the animal's exact position at the time of exposure).

Luck is a factor in most images. Bob Blanchard has said that he wouldn't enter a lucky image in a competition, but in that he's surely a tiny minority. Luck may not be enough, but few photographers would refuse to take full advantage of it. Luck certainly played a part in Winter's Snow Leopard images, mostly the exact position of the animal (head turn, etc.). Even there, however, it doesn't seem much different than running the motor drive and later selecting the best frames, something most shooters do.

But I'd say artistic vision was a much bigger factor in Winter's winning images than with many previous WPOTY winners. These are far more premeditated images than most. The eyes and head may be partly luck, but the placement of the animal in the frame is very much controlled by where the remote triggers are placed. (When remote triggers are used for owl photography, for example, the position of the bird at exposure can be determined within inches.) Look at the habitat in the backgrounds, the positioning of the animal within that habitat, the balance of ambient and flash lighting, the depth of field. It's incredible, and all planned in advance, sort of like Tom Mangelsen framing a beautiful arctic landscape and then waiting patiently for hours or days for a fox to follow a polar bear through the frame, except that the lighting and exposure compensation had to be anticipated (RAW processing helps, I assume--you gotta love it!).

Although I've never used remote triggers, they don't seem that unusual to me. Many people have used them to produce winning images in the Valley Land Fund contests, and Nick Nichols has made and published many great images with them for National Geographic. I have no problem with WPOTY deciding not to allow them in the future, but since they were not disallowed up to now, I think it unfair to say Winter's photo shouldn't have won. The rules may not be perfect (I don't agree, for example, with allowing online entry of digital originals but not scans), but they are what they are.

Great Western Sandpiper image, by the way. I think most of us know how subjective judging is, and that as good as the Snow Leopard is, in a different year, probably even with the same judges, any of the commended or winning images (not to mention some that didn't get that far) could have won the overall title.

[Ramon M. Casares]

The eyes and head may be partly luck, but the placement of the animal in the frame is very much controlled by where the remote triggers are placed.

I am quoting Cliff as he has been very clear about the composition posibilities that remote triggers can give to a dedicated photographer, about the animal's pose/attitude, I agree that luck was present, but, I insist.. why is luck a bad thing? And why are remote triggers (so well used as in this case) such a bad thing...?
That is what I don't understand Arthur as I think remote triggers are one more of the many photogrpahic tools there are out there, why not use it specially with such an elusive species wich if the photographer would've been waiting in a blind, the cat probably wouldn't have shown up.

[Ramon M. Casares]

OK, Ramon says that the above is a serious statement. I would argue that his statement is convoluted at best If not ridiculous).

Did you mean that what I said is ridiculous? First, I just said what I have interpretated from Ken Watkins' comment about working with assistants and a salary...

#1: Most but not all of the photographers that travel the world, like Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, and Andy Rouse to name three, are great photographers. Each of them has worked incredibly hard and deserve all the honors they have been accorded.

I've never said anything that contradicts that.

#2: They are able to travel the world for various reasons. Neither luck nor personal wealth has anything to do with their success and their ability to travel the world.

I agree, that was my point, maybe I forgto to put the quiestion mark at the end at the end of the phrase you quoted from my comment... that's all.

#2: The issue that I originally raised is that the creation of the WPOTY winning image had everything to do with luck and craft than with artistic vision and skill.

There's where we don't agree, I don't think luck was a t the only factor and for what matters.. why would that be so terrible, the photographic skills to achieve such a stunning shot are, to me, indisputable.