The judges have judged, and the voters have voted, and it was a real squeaker…
But the winner of our photo contest is Ellen Cohen! Ellen’s photo of a snowy night in the neighborhood received the second-most votes in our readers’ poll and was the top choice for one of our judges.
Here’s how the scoring worked:
Reader’s poll: 30 points for first, 20 points for second and 10 points for third.
Judges: 15 points for first, 10 for second and 5 for third. Each of the three judges voted separately, so each one gave out a first place, a second place and a third place. The judges’ explanations are below.
Ellen received 35 points, because she came in second in the readers’ poll and first on one of the judge’s scorecards. Tied for second were Irina Damjanovic’s silhouettes at Lincoln Center and Karen Keating’s Amsterdam Avenue snow squall; each got 30 points. Thank you again to everyone who entered and voted. Here are the results:
Readers’ Poll
1.
Silhouettes at Lincoln Center. Irina Damjanovic.
2.
Snowy winter’s night on Broadway. Ellen Cohen.
3.
From 73rd Street looking north during a thunderstorm over the summer. Gerry Padden.
Judge 1: Eliane VanderBorght
1. Number 9 – Snowy winter’s night on Broadway. Ellen Cohen. Great colors! The snow adds a ton of charm and there’s a bit of a danger factor with the cab approaching.
2. Number 54 – A warm kiss on a cold night in Central Park. Stacey Bramhall. First, that is a perfect title. Second, lovely ambiance and storytelling.
3. Number 51 – corner 81st and Columbus – Kelly Granito. Love the tones and the “slice of life” aspect to it. It makes you want to zoom in to see the people walking in the street, or peek into that apartment up there. And that sky!
Judge 2: Scott Matthews
1. Number 27: Amsterdam Avenue snow squall. Karen Keating. It just resonates for me, the distinctive composition, the primary-ish colors, the scratches of blustery snow.
2. Number 21: UWS in the snow. Paul Lashin. It looks like an unusual atmospheric opportunity — and, in fact, it kind of makes me jealous.
3. Number 14: Gingko tree. Marion Richman.
Judge 3: Denton Taylor
#1. The winner. Image #27. These days you can never be sure if an image like this is taken with an ancient cameraphone, or taken with a real camera and heavily processed. I am hoping the former. I love its ‘painterly’ quality. I love the way it looks like a scratched up canvas. I love the almost perfect balance of red and green traffic lights in the edges of the frame. It could have been taken any time in the last fifty years. A great image!
#2. Image #6. This image gets the lighting perfect, and pays homage to some notable landmarks that we know and love, Central Park West and the Reservoir, on What we see is a beautiful evening in Central Park. I wish the photographer would have tilted the camera up a bit, we would have gotten rid of the bit of plant in the foreground and would have gotten more interesting sky and got rid of some less interesting water, while using the ‘rule of thirds’. Nevertheless that is minor nit-picking and it is, overall, a beautiful image.
#3. Image #45. In spite of the massive amounts of distortion at the edges of the frame, this checks a lot of boxes for me when it cones to showing special places of the Upper West Side. Ignoring the distortion, the Bow Bridge itself is shown to good advantage. The San Remo and the Majestic check in. The light is quite wonderful with the red lights (I assume from cars) adding a streak of color. The tree is perfectly positioned, as if it were painted into the sky. It obscures nothing while adding visual interest. All in all, in spite of its technical flaws, a fine composition, great light, and shouts out ‘this is why we love our nabe.’
Congrats to all the wonderful photos of the UWS! I’m kind of shocked you would choose a photo that had a fake moon in it though…
haha Mike that’s why I didn’t vote for what was otherwise a strong image.
Next year let’s bet. I picked 2 winners and would have loved to spend some winnings at that restaurant whose name I have forgotten.
Telepan?
Maybe Telepan can whip up a moon pie for the winner?
makin’ me hungry for next January’s wagers.
Shameful that a photo with a fake moon that is clearly photoshopped to the extreme is the chosen winner.
Right?? The photo was obviously taken with an iphone with the streetlight and headlights both blown out yet you can see every detail of the moon? Please. There were some much more worthy photos that should have won.
I found many more “firsts” than you chose. Man walking dog in the snow I thought wonderful,” a view of the lake, ditto. So many good ones: composition, mood. ..
very proud, but not surprised. photography has always been her favorite hobby and I love her work. I am prejudiced as I am her mother. we are thrilled that we are not the only ones recognizing her talent.
But is it really a fake moon?
100% fake moon!
It’s a real moon, it just really wasn’t in the sky when the photo was taken. lol.
Haha. Exactly. Fake moon for sure. Too bad the judges don’t really know much about photography. Lame.
Congrats to all. And the critiques from the judges were a nice touch. WSR, let’s have more contests like this.
These are spectacular! What a gorgeous city we live in and thank god there are people out there to celebrate it.
FAKE
Thank you to all and congratulations to the winners. I’m often at LC and we always comment on the silhouettes in front of the fountain. Lovely to see it in “print”.
I am with everyone who is disappointed that Ellen Cohen’s photo got so much attention. Such a poor and obvious photoshop job. Shame on the judges for ignoring that. There are so many other worthy entries.