Tied for Third

I'm happy to say, alhamdulillah, that I tied for third in this month's photography competition, sponsored by PhotoVideoi magazine. This was the second time I had entered a photo for the competition; the first photo hadn't made the top 20 (out of a total of 42 submissions). This month's theme, "Color," drew in a total of 76 submissions, so I'm rather happy that my photo did so well. This is the photo I submitted, along with the caption I wrote:


Hungry Ghost Offering

This photo showed for me the value of making mistakes. Several years ago, at the start of the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival, my wife and I walked around the neighborhood taking photos. I intended to take a regular picture of this small shrine using my flash (as the picture was taken in the early evening). However, I had forgotten to turn the flash on and this was the result. By contrast, the next photo I took, with the flash on, was rather boring and uninspiring; the light took all the mystery out of the photo. I've always enjoyed this photo for the red hues. The natural light complements the colors of the fruit and booklet.

One thing I didn't mention in the caption is that this photo was taken by a simple digital point-and-shoot camera. Although Milady and I normally use our DSLR, that doesn't mean that the cheaper, less sophisticated cameras can't take good quality photographs.

Milady also submitted one of her photos for the first time:


Colours in Context

This photo was taken at Sentosa. What I like about this photo is that it combines both natural and man-made colours. We use colours in different contexts; here, the use of red and yellow highlights the location of the fire hydrant so that it can be seen very quickly in an emergency. Whereas, among the vegetation, the yellow colour of the flowers helps to attract insects for pollination.

Below is a listing of the other 15 photos that were published this month in addition to my own (asterisks indicate photos that are among my favorite submissions):

7. Colours - Liew Tong Leng (Winner)
8. Colours Everywhere - Jose Laurente Jr (Winner - Photographer of the Year 2007)*
13. Colour - Wee Keng Hor
16. Colours - Tan Yu Han
22. All the Colours of the Rainbow - Camillus Gerard Cai
25. Flowers of the sea - Mohamad Noor B Abd Rashid Lim*
37. Lory Colours - Andrew JK Tan*
38. The Colours of Excitement - Chong Yin In
39. Ice Sets Fire - Sandra Wang
49. Xmas Tree - Andreas Iwan Sudharma
52. Colourful Hats - Sahari Sariman*
53. What Colour is your World - Erik Sevilla Estrada
55. Colourful Benches - Clara Tan*
65. Food Colours - Yee Lai Ying
76. Childhood Love - Ng Cheng Cong

These are some of my other favorite submissions, but were not published by the editors:

1. Colours - Wilson Low
2. Heavenly Flower - Teo Sze Lee
14. Bamboo Sea - Peh Chee Ee
15. Lights and Water - David Ng Soon Thong
47. Peaceful Trondheim - Lee Men Huang
73. Miss Colourful - Benjamin Balmoris Jr