Bucket List Photo Comp Results

Last month I went through the submissions for the photo competition that I mentioned in my previous blog post, and picked out the top ten. Here are my picks along with comments on the top five images. Congrats to Tom St George on the win!

1. https://www.photocrowd.com/photos/cenote-el-pit-2089160.645e6b5a5/

Winner! This capture by underwater photographer Tom St George encapsulates perfectly the Bucket List Moments theme of the competition along with a fantastically framed image, dripping with atmosphere. It feels like something out of a dream and you’re drawn into the image with the central suspended figure of the diver surrounded by shafts of light coming down from the hole above him. A great photo should stop you in your tracks and make you ask questions, and this image certainly does that: “What’s the diver doing there?”, “Where is this?”, “How did the photographer get the shot?”. I could stare at this capture for hours and would love to have it hanging on the wall in my house. Congrats Tom!

2. https://www.photocrowd.com/photos/traversing-the-everest-summit-pyramid-375558.ebecf96a7/

Runner up! Working as a photographer in the mountains myself, I have massive respect for my peers, and even more so for those that work in very extreme conditions like Andrew Robertson. Having the presence of mind to be shooting in such an environment, with everything else that’s going on around him, and also managing to frame the two mountaineers in action, is highly impressive. Along with that, going to Everest, the summit or even just base camp, is a bucket list moment for so many people, so this image gets runner up!

3. https://www.photocrowd.com/photos/chasing-the-aurora-in-the-arctic-2057058.ec5065df8/

Third place! Seeing the aurora in person has been on my own personal bucket list for a long time and so this photo by Sean Kurdziolek struck a chord with me. The image not only shows you the beauty of experience, but also clearly depicts how remote, wild and inevitably cold the location is. A photographer, huddled over his camera, trying to stay warm, trying to get the shot, but just being out there in nature, is really what it’s all about for me.

4. https://www.photocrowd.com/photos/victoria-beach-1908738.3d12d459d/

Fourth place! I love how Russell McGuire’s aerial photo of a swimmer at Victoria beach shows the rough waves and wild sea are crashing against the rocks around the solo swimmer but they appear totally calm. There are so many metaphors this represents in our modern, hyper-connected world. We now travel to ‘get away from it all’ and this sums up a perfect bucket list moment, instantly making you want to be there.

5. https://www.photocrowd.com/photos/frozen-in-time-1384704.d56dd9559/

Fifth place! Ice caves are one of the majestic wonders of the adventure and exploration world. Sigurdur William Brynjarsson’s photo of an ice cave explorer in Iceland brings you into this universe, from the shiny overhanging roof, to the brightly lit cave entrance, you can’t help but be drawn into this image and left basking in the beauty of the chilly chamber in front of your eyes.