There's only one month left for photographers to enter the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards, one of the biggest and best photography competitions around today. First launched in 2008, the awards are dedicated to supporting and cultivating the culture of photography. They've just revealed an exclusive selection of entries in their Open Competition, which is dedicated to amateurs and photo enthusiasts (in other words, not professional photographers). The Open Competition offers 10 diverse categories ranging from Architecture and Arts and Culture to Nature and Wildlife. Our favorite category is Split Second, as the competition states, “it requires technical skill, patience and imagination to find the perfect moment that might otherwise go unnoticed.”
Sony allowed us to share with you some of the exciting entries in the Open Competition. From an adorable orangutan shielding itself from the rain to an endless amount of King Penguins huddled together in South Georgia, here are our favorite photos, so far, in the competition. For the Open and Youth Competition, you have until January 5th, 2015 to enter. Professionals can submit their photos up until January 8th, 2015. Can't wait to announce the winners! (Here's who took home the top prizes in 2014.)
Above: Orangutan in The Rain
I was taking pictures of some Orangutans in Bali and then it started to rain. Just before I put my camera away, I saw this Orangutan took a banana leaf and put it on top on his head to protect himself from the rain! I immediately used my DSLR and telephoto lens to preserve this magic moment. Image location: Bali, Indonesia
Photographer Name: Andrew Suryono
Copyright: (c) Andrew Suryono, Indonesia, Entry, Nature and Wildlife Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Timeless Affection
Fina (the girl in the picture) is the younger of my two daughters. Fina used to be scared of cat, which was the reason why we decided to adopt two kittens. We wanted Fina to learn how to live with cats, how to hold them, how to care for them and how to treat them as family members to help her overcome her fear. Now we can proudly say she did! Day by day, 7 months passed by and today Fiona and the cats are best friends, and love and care for each other. In this picture I wanted to show how gracefully they're together in a frame with Leon, one of her babies.
Photographer Name: Arief Siswandhono
Copyright: (c) Arief Siswandhono, Indonesia, Entry, People Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Desert Dawn
About 30 minutes after sunrise a hot air balloon is captured in the distance beginning it's decent to land in a camel farm. The image was shot while floating over the dunes in a chase balloon.
Photographer Name: Gareth Lowndes
Copyright: (c) Gareth Lowndes, New Zealand, Entry, Travel Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Morning Hour
A white fallow deer standing in the morning mist an early morning in Eifel National Park, Germany. One hardly dares to move – can only look fascinated.
Photographer Name: Georg May
Copyright: (c) Georg May, Germany, Entry, Nature and Wildlife Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Vigorous Touch of the Morning
A Hindu monk is walking in a foggy winter morning of a mango garden of Dinajpur.
Photographer Name: Jubair Bin Iqbal
Copyright: (c) Jubair Bin Iqbal, Bangladesh, Entry, People Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Dinner
The mother and the cub are Spirit Bears or Kermode bear a subspecies of the North American Black Bear living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Colombia, Canada. These bears are rarer than the Panda Bear in the wild.
Photographer Name: Kyle Breckenridge
Copyright: (c) Kyle Breckenridge, Canada, Entry, Nature and Wildlife Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
In a Crowd of King Penguins
King Penguins live in large colonies in South Georgia, a speck of an island in the South Atlantic Ocean and just below the Antarctic Convergence. They are very beautiful, gracious and yet almost comical birds and a true delight to observe. This image aims to capture and reflect how gracious and colorful wildlife can be even at the ends of the Earth.
Photographer Name: Lisa Vaz
Copyright: (c) Lisa Vaz, Portugal, Entry, Nature and Wildlife Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Blaak
Cube houses (Dutch: Kubuswoningen) are a set of innovative houses built in Rotterdam and Helmond in the Netherlands, designed by architect Piet Blom and based on the concept of “living as an urban roof”: high density housing with sufficient space on the ground level. Blom tilted the cube of a conventional house 45 degrees, and rested it upon a hexagon-shapedpylon. His design represents a village within a city, where each house represents a tree, and all the houses together, a forest.
Photographer Name: Cor Boers
Copyright: (c) Cor Boers, Netherlands, Entry, Architecture Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Dog Fight
This is exactly the moment when Romanian YAK Team is breaking the formation just in front of the public at Bucharest International Air Show. At that moment they look just like they are haunting each other.
Photographer Name: Cioplea Vlad
Copyright: (c) Cioplea Vlad, Romania, Entry, Split Second Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Holi
Hindu devotees throw vivid color at each other to celebrate the start of spring during Lathmar Holi Festival. Hindu brahmans from the village of Nandgaon are covered in colored powder as they sit and sing on the floor during prayers.
Photographer Name: Ioulia Chvetsova
Copyright: (c) Ioulia Chvetsova, France, Entry, Arts and Culture Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
The Trace of an Ancient Glacier
Denali is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. Travelers along it see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak, 20,320′ Mount McKinley. What used to be glaciers are now white and blue rocks that contrasts with red, yellow, orange and green tundra of this vast natural paradise. The image is taken in Autumn when the colours multiply and make the landscape truly remarkable.
Photographer Name: Miquel Art?s Illana
Copyright: (c) Miquel Art?s Illana, Spain, Entry, Travel Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Step by Step
A staircase in Berlin, reduced to the essential.
Photographer Name: Ralf Wendrich
Copyright: (c) Ralf Wendrich, Germany, Entry, Architecture, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
Covered
So much of a portrait relies on the face in a photo. But when it is covered, we can see a whole different side of a person through their movement, their posture and even what we think the expression on their face will be when it is finally uncovered.
Photographer Name: Courtney Colantonio
Copyright: (c) Courtney Colantonio-Ray, USA, Entry, Split Second Category, Open Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards
