Photo Competition 2017

Another year of mountain activities was behind us, so there was time for our traditional Photo Competition. Photo Contest seems to be getting bigger with every year - one hundred and eight photos were submitted to this year's edition. Besides Canadian Rocky Mountains we received photos from French and Austrian Alps, Beskydy, Opava and even Laos. The new thing this year is that we made an effort to make the competition ... bilingual. Almost all our Club's members speak good, or at least decent, English, while not everyone speaks Polish. These allowed a bunch of new people to compete and/or cast their votes.

The competition was very tough, and the results quite close in many categories. In this post I will only present the winning photos. Those who would be interested seeing all of them, I encourage to visit https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s6e9tprzvi382nk/AAAqRleZqzNxNhB5ZebBLOW1a?dl=0

And here are the winners in the ten categories:

A – „Ludzie i góry” – Piotr Rajski Award – “People and the mountains”

A1. Invictus. – 68 points. Author: Piotr Rajski. Model: Mike Trzecieski-Alexander. The photo was taken in Zillertal Alps (Austria), during the second leg of Berlin Hohenweg (7 day long trek) in July 2017. This photo was also voted to be the Best Photo of 2017.

B – „Górskie krajobrazy” – Roman Lipiecki Award – “Mountain landscapes”

B6. The Mount Blanc Circuit is ... blanc! – 42 points. Author: Judy Haig. The photo was taken during the trek around Mount Blanc (France, Italy) in June 2017.

In the absence of the founder of the award, who succumbed to the roaring around flu, the diploma and the prize were handed over to the winner - Judy Haig - by Mike Trzecieski. 

C – „Humor górski” – Michał Trzecieski Award – “Mountain humor”

C4. Ładna to się nawet dorobi własnego kulisa! (A pretty woman can even get her own coolie.) – 37. Author: Roman Lipiecki. Models: Mike Trzecieski-Alexander, Bozena Wojno. Pocaterra Ridge, Kananaskis, September 2017.

As mention above, Roman was sick so will have to pick up his prize later. 

 D – „Uśmiech w górach” – Michał Kańtoch Award – “Smile in the mountains”

D3. There is nothing like smiling together. – 44. Author: Geoff Hansen. Models: Geoff Hansen, Judy Haig. The photo was taken during the trek around Mount Blanc (France, Italy) in June 2017.

In the absence of the founder of the award, who asked to be excused on account of delightful skiing in Canmore, the prize was given by Danuta Rajska. As it may be seen, Geoff is quite good in smiling not only with his own wife :-): 

E – “Górskie archiwalia” – Yanek Wójcik Award – “Mountain archives” 

E7. Majowe narty pod Samotnią (May skiing at Samotnia Lodge). – 57. Author: unknown. Model: (young) Dorota Kratochwil-Otto. Photo taken near Samotnia Lodge, Karkonosze (?), sometime in late 1960s.

The winner of the award, believed to be sun-tanning her lovely body somewhere in Mexico, will pick her her prize upon return to Canada. 

F – „Górski selfik” – Dorota Kratochwil-Otto Award – “Mountain selfie”

 F6. Cały ty, cały ja. – 44. Author and model: Yanek Wojcik.

Dorota and Yanek exchanged favors, winning in the opposite's respective category. In the absence of Dorota, the prize was given by Bozena Maciaszczyk:

 G – „(Piękna) Kobieta na tle gór” – Marek Kucmierz Award – “(Pretty) Woman in the mountains”

G2. Joyous Milcha. – 39. Author: Judy Haig. Model: Milcha (in this category the award goes to the model). The photo was taken during the trek around Mount Blanc (France, Italy) in June 2017.

Also the winner in one of our "Oscar Categories," Milcha, couldn't attend the ceremony. This time Belize is to be blamed. In her stead, the prize was received by the author of the photo:

... who had a chance to experience a bit of our famous Polish chivalry!

H – “(Sexy) Mężczyzna na tle gór” – Bożena Maciaszczyk Award – “(Sexy) Man in the mountains”

H4. Sexy man always looks toward the mountains! – 39. Author: Judy Haig. Model: Geoff Hansen (in this category the award goes to the model). The photo was taken during the trek around Mount Blanc (France, Italy) in June 2017.

In the next Oscar category, in which we give awards to the models rather than photographers, the winner happened to be Geoff Hansen. It must have been because of these sexy calves. It was only proper that the sexiest man in the mountains received his prize from a beautiful woman:

I – „Górskie dziwolągi” – Staszek Smuga-Otto Award – “Mountain wonders”

I1. Wybuch słonecznego wulkanu. (Eruption of the sunny volcano.) – 43. Author: Staszek Smuga-Otto. Place: Mount Loki, BC. 

Paradoxically, Staszek's photo won in the category he created, thus, besides receiving a diploma, he'll have to reward himself. 

Finally, in the newly created category:

M – „Mikro-świat i jego rola w górach” – Henryk Dąbrowski Award – “Micro-world and its role in the mountains”

M4. Fly butterly, fly! – 41. Author: Judy Haig. Model: butterfly. The photo was taken during the trek around Mount Blanc (France, Italy) in June 2017.

the prize went again to one of Judy's photo. She also almost got another kiss:

Next, from the ten winning photos, the members chose the Picture of the Year 2017. This honor went to Invictus:

For this victory, I awarded myself a bottle of Scotch, while Mike received a bottle of the most exquisite Rioja wine, because he stroke such a good pose in this picture.

With "Invictus" there was also associated another award - Ania Kupnicka Award for the Best Commentary. It read as follows:

"(...) A1, in my humble opinion, shows superiority to all these other pictures. Besides a very lucky, but excellent composition, this picture shows, metaphorically, what our adventure with the mountains is about. We go to the mountains to breathe with fresh air, to admire beautiful views, but also to ... conquer! This picture seems to illustrate the wonderful qualities of the human spirit – desire for adventure, courage to overcome dangers, persistence in overcoming one’s physical weaknesses and tiredness, etc. I even like the gloomy background in this photo – clouds likely to bring rain and cold – these also have to be conquered! Truly, it seems that nothing can stop the human being in this picture, that he is, in fact, ... INVINCIBLE!"

This comment was, incidentally, ... mine, so to me went the bottle of champagne! (Ania left the prize before going to Arizona)

So this, concisely, what happened in the 2017 Photo Competition, and the very "joyous" Awards Handing Ceremony. If you liked what you saw, make some mountain related pictures in 2018, and ... participate!

Piotr.

P.S. Yanek Wojcik produced the most excellent Album containing most of the pictures from the Competition. It can be ordered for $30. Also, Gennadij Sergeyev printed 12x24" copy of the Picture of the Year "Invictus." This can be ordered for $20.