A few weeks back we held a fun contest revolving around editing a photo. We started out with a photo by Dave K. Piper with strong compositional elements, but used a ‘naked raw’ file to let anybody who wants to try and tweak it to their likings.  The winner, chosen by Dave  (and announced at the bottom of the post) gets a a sweet Blue CityWalker 20 camera bag from Think Tank Photo. Results have been staggering. Several wonderful looks have been submitted, as well as a few composites. Here are some of the many wonderful submissions, followed by Dave’s selection of the winner: (if you just want the winner scroll to the end)

Andrew Zeitermma173julien-dzuidziaJod RHanudiyancarlosVolker RachoTom-Jakob-BrablecTanKXSuperBikSumitsergeysusSean ThurstonRyanPaul ZambranaPaganatorMitchell FloresmillhoudMikaelMehrdadLuca RossiJustin BriggsJoshJeff ClarkirfanHalid KasapovicFlorian-Meiereric guyotCNekbonoboAustin Cuttino

Winning Photo by Dave K. Piper

At the route of photography is the idea that a story could be told. For some people, the Vernacular ideas are still present and should be upheld, but for some, photography is a gateway for thought, fun and creation. I picked this image by David Zacek as it shows story, it shows a dream and it does so in a way that moves the first image along into a new image. This for me is what the idea of photography and retouching together could be used for, an extension of our normal world, letting us show a world half a stop away from where we are today. Technically, this image is also nice, the depth of field is a little off of the bigger balloons in the sky, as the coloring would be also, when you think of the washed coloring of the sky, but, I think this image is meant to be an image of a dream, and dreams are hardly ever perfect. In short, this image made me smile the most, thus wins. David Zacek, will be getting this Blue CityWalker 20. Huge thanks to Think Tank for the prize.