The theme for the second round of the Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) competition was ‘Spring Colour’ and there were some beautiful images entered. After an enjoyable judging phase and much discussion, we are delighted to reveal that the following images will go into our shortlist to be judged by our illustrious panel at the end of the year. One of these superb images has also been selected as the round winner with the photographer being awarded a voucher from MPB worth £500 – scroll down to find out who.
CJPOTY March 2022 Spring Colour shortlisted images
Sara Jazbar
Sara tells us that the Pulsatilla Pratensi is one of the first flowers to bloom each, it appears very early in Spring. But in this case the flowers were too optimistic because winter still hadn’t given up its hold. Sara captured her image using her Nikon D500 and Lensbaby Velvet 56.
Rosemarie Prydal
Rosemarie shot this stunning image using a Sony A7 IV with the Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS mounted. We love the level of detail at the focus point and her exposure is perfect with the dark background allowing the colour of the flower to really stand out. The petals almost look like velvet.
Angi Wallace
Angi has had two of her images shortlisted for the March 2022 round of our competition. She shot this image of a patch of crocuses with her Sony A7 II and a 58mm Meyer Gorlitz Primoplan lens. The shallow depth of field renders most the petals a lovely, dreamy splash of lilac, helping the orange stamen and anthers to stand out.
Angi’s second shortlisted image, ‘Anemones’ was shot on a Sony A7 III, again with the 58mm Meyer Gorlitz Primoplan lens. We love how the flowers emerge from the wonderfully soft background.
Eric Browett
Eric created this stunning image using a Nikon D7100 and AF-S Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR on the Treshnish Isles, off Mull, just as the bluebells were at their vibrant best. He’s shot from a low angle so that although the bluebells aren’t sharp they are a key part of this captivating shot.
John Thorndike
The strong pink in John’s image of bleeding heart against a black background makes for a very striking image. The flowers are perfectly arranged, in pristine condition and absolutely sharp. John used his Canon EOS 40D to capture this shot, the second of his images to make it into our shortlist – his first was in round one.
Fiona Beadle
Round two’s winner, Fiona, was in fine form again with this lovely image captured using her Nikon Z7 II. Fiona’s says, ‘I got really low to shoot this single flower near a stream without any other distractions near it. I loved its perfect petals, opened in its prime revealing its pollen-dusted stamen.’
Molly Hollman
If you read our feature about our CJPOTY round one winner you won’t be surprised to see that one of Molly’s images has been shortlisted for the Spring Colour round. Molly planted this ranunculus in her garden last March and one morning she noticed a ladybird on it – she followed it around with her Sony A7 III and Sigma 105mm macro lens as it walked about and managed to get this lovely shot. Well done Molly!
Philippa Huber
Philippa says, ‘I was struck by the juxtaposition of the two pretty white blossoms on the spiky blackthorn tree, which seemed even more striking as the sun went down in the background. Spring blossom is so often extremely pretty but surrounded by very aggressive spikes and I wanted to capture that in this shot.’ It’s that juxtaposition and the colour contrast that caught our eyes too.
Rebecca Hedges
Rebecca shot this wonderfully cool image of an iris with her Sony A6500 and a 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. We like how the blue tones of the flower are also seen in the background and applaud Rebecca’s careful focusing and aperture selection to deliver just the right depth of field.
CJPOTY March 2022 winner: Rosemarie Prydal
Congratulations Rosemarie, a voucher to the value of £500 from MPB is heading your way! Let us know what you spend it on. Your image will also join the other nine in our shortlist to be judged for the overall prize at the end of the year.
CJPOTY April 2022: ‘From Up Above’
The theme for the fourth round of the Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year (CJPOTY) competition is ‘From UP Above’. You don’t have to use a drone to shoot an image for this month’s theme, but you can if you like. We want to see subjects shot from above, whether that’s the view from a mountain top, a city view from a sky scraper, a creative flat lay, or a top-down view of anything that takes your fancy. You can go high or stay low, but shoot your subject from above.
This round of our monthly competition is open for submissions until 18:00 BST (19:00 CET and 10:00 PST) on 30th April 2022.
To submit your entry, visit cjpoty.com. You can submit one image per entry but make up to three entries for £2.00 plus payment processing costs (£0.26).
Up Above inspiration
If you’re short on inspiration, take a look at MPB’s interview with Hugo Healy, an award-winning photographer, drone operator and videographer. There’s a fabulous selection of images that focus on the patterns that are revealed when you look at things from above.
And if that puts you in the mood to try a drone, take a closer look at the DJI Mavic 2 Pro or check out our DJI Mini 2 review – it’s a sub-250g drone that’s super-easy to fly.
If you like to be in complete control of your photography, what about creating a flat lay image like one of these from Tracy Calder, co-found of Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY)? The fourth Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition is open for entry from now until 12th June 2022.
Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year prizes
At the end of the month, the Camera Jabber team will pick one winning image and nine runners up from the April entries. 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.
All 10 of the selected images will go into our shortlist for the year.
We’ll do this each month in 2022 so that by the end of the year, there will be 120 shortlisted images. These will then go before our fantastic panel of judges who will decide the 1st, 2nd and 3rd-placed images.
The photographer of the first-placed image overall, as decided by the panel of judges, will received a voucher to the value of £1000 from MPB.com as well as a trophy and the title ‘Camera Jabber Photographer of the Year 2023‘. The photographers who come second and third will receive vouchers worth £500 and £250 respectively.
The judges are:
Ben Brain – Photographer, journalist & Sigma ambassador
Sophie Collins – Chief Marketing Office at MPB
Donna Crous – Food photographer, author, Nikon Europe ambassador and Rotolight Master of Light
Kate Hopewell-Smith – Wedding, portrait & boudoir photographer, Sony ambassador
Sanjay Jogia – Wedding photographer & Canon ambassador
Pete Reed OBE – Three times Olympic gold medal-winning rower and keen documentary photographer
Dominique Shaw – Photographer and co-founder of York Place Studios and Fujifilm ambassador
Craig Strong – Lensbaby founder
Christina Vaughan – Founder of Cultura Creative, the home of inclusive stock photography
Jeremy Walker – Landscape photographer, author & former Nikon ambassador
You don’t have to enter the competition every month, but you are welcome to do so and the more shortlisted images you have at the end of the year, the greater than chance of winning the top prize.
About MPB
Founded by Matt Barker in 2011, MPB is the world’s largest platform for used photography and videography kit. MPB has transformed the way people buy, sell and trade equipment, making photography more accessible, affordable and sustainable.
Headquartered in the creative communities of Brighton, Brooklyn and Berlin, the MPB team includes trained camera experts and seasoned photographers and videographers who bring their passion to work every day to deliver outstanding service. Every piece of kit is inspected carefully by product specialists and comes with a six-month warranty to give customers peace of mind that buying used doesn’t mean sacrificing reliability.