During 2021 we ran the Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year competition on Photocrowd with a different theme each month. Every month, the ‘expert judged’ winner selected by the Jabber team went into the shortlist for the overall winner. The ‘crowd judged’ winning images also gets to be featured here on Camera Jabber.
Now we are into 2022, we have a shortlist of 12 images from which we will select the overall winner. Scroll down to see which is your favourite before we announce the overall winner tomorrow.
January: Frosty Landscapes won by David Southern
The theme for January was ‘Frosty Landscapes’ and with over 2,700 entries from more than 1,700 photographers, the competition was tough. However, after a gruelling judging phase that saw some superb snowy landscapes ruled out for missing the ‘frosty landscapes’ brief, we can reveal that the January 2021 expert judged winner is ‘Jack Frost’s Fingers’ by David Southern, known as Hedgepig on Photocrowd.
David shot his image in Cumbria in the UK using a Canon EOS 6D Mark II with a EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM at 110mm and f/11 at 1/250sec and ISO 200.
We felt that the inclusion of the gate in this image really pulls everything together, giving your eye somewhere to settle. David handled the exposure very well, with the sunlight bringing out the detail of the frosty twigs and branches of the trees. It’s a worthy winner of the Frosty Landscapes contest.
January contest crowd winner
There were over 143,000 votes cast in the January round of the competition and we’re delighted to announce that the most popular image was ‘Winter Rose’ by hwat.
hwat says shot this image on the edge of Loch Achanalt near Strathbran in the Highlands of Scotland. He used a medium format camera loaded with Fujifilm Velvia film and scanned the transparency to upload it to Photocrowd.
hwat says, ‘this area is all but inaccessible at any other time of year as it involves crossing a significant amount of extremely boggy ground… At minus 14 degrees Celcius it was frozen and only the outflow remained fluid. I waited for the pre-dawn sunrise to colour up the sky and took this close to the frozen grasses in the foreground.’
February: Garden birds won by Donna Ruiz
February’s round proved even more popular than January’s with 3,300 images entered from 1,900 photographers. Robins were a favourite subject but in the end, it was Donna Ruiz‘s image of a hummingbird enjoying some water spray that caught the judges’ eyes.
February contest crowd winner
Hummingbirds were also popular with the crowd voters and of the 159,000 votes cast, the biggest proportion went to Jim for his wonderful image of a ruby-throated hummingbird getting ready for a fight.
March: Kitchen macro won by Welma
Our kitchen macro challenge proved very tough but as usual, the Camera Jabber community rose to it and we saw some superb images. However, we were all drawn to Welma‘s image of microdroplets of condensation on a bottle in her fridge. The intense blue and the division in the droplet size make for a very striking shot.
March contest crowd winner
It was an image of a single waterdrop that drew the most votes from the crowd. That description doesn’t do Pavel Svozil‘s image justice though. His careful focusing, superb timing, paired with an interesting background refracted in the water make for an arresting image.
April: Rain won by Pawel Wewiorski
Our rain theme was very popular and we were treated to lots of images of people rushing through storms, animals sheltering and moody rain-lashed landscapes. Pawel Wewiorski‘s image stood out from the crowd with a clever, humorous take on the subject. Pawel shot the image on a Canon EOS 5D with an EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM at 24mm and f/4.
April contest crowd winner
A combination of the clearly visible and attractively blurred heavy rain, plus the bright colours in Giulio Montimes’ (AKA Giulio61 on Photocrowd) image helped to secure him the top spot with the crowd. It’s a superb shot and a worthy winner.
May: Spring flowers won by Chris Hall
With around 4,700 images entered from approximately 3,000 photographers, the May sping flowers challenge was one of our most popular to date. There was a riot of colour, but ultimately we selected Chris Hall‘s more subdued image of two faded daffodils in a glass vase as our winner. We love the lighting and the way it reveals the detail in the delicate petals.
May contest crowd winner
The crowd vote went to this beautiful image of pulsatilas by Scifier. It was also popular at Jabber HQ for its attractive combination of subtle colour, fine detail and shallow depth of field.
June: Outdoor portraits won by Trevor Cole
Trevor Cole‘s image, shot on a Nikon D850, is, in essence, a very simple portrait, but everything is done extremely well. The focus is perfect while using an aperture of f/2.8 at 200mm delivers shallow depth of field so that the girl’s eyes really stand out and pull you into the shot. The beads around her neck along with the scarf over her head also help to frame her face and the exposure is spot on.
June contest crowd winner
Almost 193,900 votes were cast in our outdoor portraits contest and there were 2,800 entries from 1,700 photographers. The crowd selected Masha Parkhomenka‘s beautiful portrait, shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, as their winner. Congratulations Masha!
July: Summer sport won by John Thorndike
Sport was a bit more restricted during 2021, but that didn’t stop John Throndike coming up with this eye-catching image of an endurance race. We felt it captured the intensity of this event superbly. The mud and water dripping from the competitor’s face as he gasps for air with the flames beyond set the scene brilliantly. The composition is also excellent as John found himself a very good shooting location and was clearly ready to capture the perfect moment.
July contest crowd winner
Dwayne Andrejczuk‘s image of an acrobatic motorcyclist proved a popular choice with the Photocrowd crowd. We love how the rider has his arm’s outstretched as if he’s flying while the bike continues on its route through the air.
August: Home views won by Werner Skåtøy
This round was about showcasing the area where the photographer lives and we think that Werner Skåtøy did it brilliantly. The shot was taken not far from where Werner’s home in Norway. We love that he’s captured the mist rising from the lake with the sun just hitting the trees on the little island.
August contest crowd winner
Lia M found a great viewpoint for her lovely sunset image of this Victorian pier. She made the image from three bracketed shots to balance the exposure across the frame.
September: Low-level photography winner Carole Zimmerman
There were over 4,300 entires to this contest which means that the winning image really had to stand out. Carole Zimmerman‘s image, which was taken at the British Wildlife Centre, certain does that. We were drawn in by the intensity of the action and the foxes’ expressions. The aggressor fox is pin-sharp, with nice detail in its teeth and fur, and the background is thrown out of focus to help the duelling foxes stand out.
September contest crowd winner
Kingfishers are notoriously difficult birds to photograph and Andy Astill‘s image shows a perfect execution. The extreme low angle fitted brief, and we loved the frozen motion of the water drops and the splayed feathers. The nicely blurred, plain background also helps the subject stand out.
October: Puddles won by Tracey Singleton
Tracey Singleton won this round with an image that has lots of impact plus dramatic dark lines that inject perspective and pull your eye into the frame towards the two figures in the distance. Tracey picked the perfect time of day for the shot so that there’s plenty of colour in the sky and the reflections. What a great shooting angle!
October contest crowd winner
Eric Browett‘s image would easily pass muster in a wildlife challenge but it was a very popular choice for our puddles contest.
November: Light painting won by Donald Yip
Donald says that he stumbled across this bus while he was photographing at a nearby salt lake, called Lake Tyrrell in Victoria, Australia. He found it with a friend while scouting for Milky Way locations and thought it would be a cool subject. He used a drone to create the circle of light and the result is an image that made us stop and look.
November contest crowd winner
Congratulations to Shahrouz Ebrahimpanah (aka horenza85 on Photcrowd) for capturing this colourful image of Tehran at night.
December: the city at night won by Claudio Sericano
The cinematic feel of Claudio Sericano‘s image makes it really strong. The long exposure creates some nice, moody contrast, and the lone light in a window punctuated by the silhouette of a figure looking out gives the whole scene an impressive sense of scale.
December contest crowd winner
We saw many city skylines and traffic trails in this round, and many of Dubai, but Wim Solheim‘s image really stands out. The perspective makes you feel like Superman weaving through the city. The exposure is perfect, capturing detail in the sky and buildings and light trails down below.
Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2021/22 prizes
The monthly prize for the expert judged winners was a license for DxO PhotoLab 4 Elite worth £179. The winning photographers also go onto the shortlist to win an overall prize of Nik Collection 4 by DxO worth £133 and the title Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2022. We will announce the overall winner tomorrow.
Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2022/23
The theme for the first round of the new Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) competition is ‘New Beginnings’. We’ve chosen this for the first round because January is a time of year when we like to turn over a new leaf, look at things differently and start afresh. It’s also a great time to kickstart your photography by taking on a new project such as entering a competition each month!
Round one closes for submissions at 18:00 GMT (19:00 CET and 10:00 PST) on 31st January so there’s still time to enter.
Each month, the photographer of the winning image will receive a voucher from MPB.com to the value of £500 which can be spent on anything from a huge range of kit from the World’s biggest platform for used photographic gear.
Visit CJPOTY to enter.