I just wanted to write a quick blog post to highlight some of the best photos entered into the dramatic sky amateur photo contest:

Juliette Wolf

Pete Pfeiffer

Stephen Arens

Our first amateur photo contest is over.  Their were 176 votes and the winner is Chris Belli with his photo of water on the beach.

Here is Chris’ description of the photo:
“I took this picture while in Costa Rica on my first mission trip this past summer.  We had an amazing week serving the people of Costa Rica.  God was on the move in many ways.  On our last day, the team got to go to the beach.  I was walking on the beach and noticed a nice curve when the waves were rolling into the beach.  I setup my camera to capture the curve thinking it would be interesting and that the curve would draw the eye through the entire shot.  I was pleased with the outcome and Im happy to have won the water photo contest.  Thanks to all those who voted for me.”

Here’s the photo with information:
Nikon D300
Lens 70-200
Shutter: 1/8000th
Apterutre: f2.8
Exposure compensation +1/3
ISO 200

One of the things that I liked best about this photo was it’s simplicity. We all have a tendency to focus on the big picture and often miss the little subtleties that Chris captured in this image.

Don’t forget to submit photos for the next contest (Dramatic Sky).  Look here for details:
http://arisingimages.com/blog/new-amateur-photo-contest-dramatic-sky/471/

Our last photo contest had a lot of great submissions so we’re going to run another contest.
This contest is called “Dramatic Sky” and I want people to submit photos that they’ve taken where a dramatic sky enhances the photo.  This can be pretty skies, ugly skies, rainy skies, sunset skies, etc.  HOWEVER, the sky should be PART of the photo and not the entire photo.
In other words, if there was just a plain boring blue sky, there should still be some type of other elements in the photo.
If you see an interesting sky, before taking the photo, try to find a unique way to capture some type of foreground elements and eliminate distractions such as power lines or garbage cans or whatever.  In other words, do it right as opposed to just hanging your camera out your car window. Spend a minute to crop or straighten your images before fixing them. This can be done with even the cheapest graphics programs that come with just about any computer.
A quick camera tip…to get rich colors in sunset skies, underexpose your image using either manual settings or your cameras exposure compensation feature.

There is no prize other than a virtual pat on the back and having your photo displayed on our website.

Please email me up to 3 images.
Photos should be submitted by amateurs only and the person submitting the images must have copyrights to the image.

Images should be in jpeg format and should be emailed to: .
In your email, please write:
“Dramatic Sky Contest” in the subject line
In the body of the email, please include your name and the location the photo was taken.  Also write info about the photo and why you like it along with any other information you want to tell me about it.

Please submit your images by October 15th at which point we will post some of the top images for review and voting.

Here are a few pictures to get the juices flowing:

The first amateur photo contest submission deadline is now past.  I just wanted to thank everyone for all the contest submissions.  There were a lot of images to choose from!  Even if your image was not selected into the top three, I hope you will continue submitting photos to future contests which will be announced soon.  Many of you asked for critiques on your images and I apologize if I did not respond as I just didn’t have the time to provide personal critiques on all the images submitted.
It’s now time to vote for your favorite picture from the “water” contest. These photos are in no particular order.
Voting ends September 15 before midnight.  Feel free to post comments.

Photo 1: Submitted by Sue Dankovich

Photo 2: Submitted by Stephen Arens

Photo 3: Submitted by Chris Belli

You can only vote once.  Voting ends September 15 before midnight.

We’re going to try something a bit new around here. To help promote photography and encourage amateur photographers, we are going to hold amateur photo contests on our site. We will pick a category and anyone that is interested in participating can email me a photo. A few of our favorite photos will get posted on our blog where you can have your friends and family come to our blog to vote for your photo.
We’re guessing that it will start out slow but hopefully in time, word will spread about our fun monthly contest and more and more amateur photographers will be interested in getting a bit of recognition for their work.
There is no prize other than a virtual pat on the back and having your photo displayed on our website.
So…let’s give it a shot.

Since this is our first try at this, let’s keep the category very wide. The first category will be water.
Please email me your favorite photos that involve water.
Photos should be submitted by amateurs only and the person submitting the images must have copyrights to the image.

Images should be in jpeg format and should be emailed to: .
In your email, please write:
Water Photo Contest in the subject line
In the body of the email, please include your name and the location the photo was taken.  Also write info about the photo and why you like it along with any other information you want to tell me about it.

Please submit your images by August 30th at which point we will announce a new contest and post some of the top images for review and voting.

Here are just a few images to help get the juices flowing: