If you are interested in photography, you might have an idea about the International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. This is one of the most prestigious competitions where talented photographers submit their work hoping to win. But the 2020 award goes to 24-years old Kelvin Yuen who is from Hong Kong. He has won the main prize for clicking mesmerizing pictures of mountains from several locations.
The next award i.e. the “Photograph of the year” award was given to Kai Hornung from Germany. He has impressed everyone with his breathtaking aerial shots of Iceland.
Besides this, the judges of the competition have also shortlisted a few other pictures. If you want to see them, keep scrolling.
1.
Kelvin says that “I’m 24 years old and I’ve been taking photos for six years since borrowing my cousin’s camera for a hiking day trip to Lion Rock Peak”.
“For a person like me, who grew up in a city (Hong Kong), this walk opened a whole new world to me,” Kelvin continued. “Since then, I have spent most of my free time in the mountains, exploring the spectacular views of nature. And after graduating from university in 2018, I have been able to travel around the world and have become a full-time professional landscape photographer.”
2. By photographer of the year – Kelvin Yuen
“I use Adobe Camera Raw to adjust the main aspects of my file, such as tone and color. Then after this rough adjustment, I drag the photo into Adobe Photoshop to manage the details. I always use dodging and burning to highlight the foreground or the main subject, to enhance the attraction of what I want to present in the photo. Also, vertical panoramas are one of my favorite techniques, as some perspectives cannot be captured with a single shot.”
3.
“What I like the most about landscape photography is that it gives me a chance to understand myself,” the winner of the 2020 competition told in a press release. “Working outdoors, I need to deal with many uncertain conditions – for example, shooting without sleeping, shooting inside a storm, exploring areas without a path, and even dealing with a car that gets stuck! These challenges have improved my problem-solving skills and give me an opportunity to reach a place I never expected I could in my life.”
“For photo competitions, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year award has been my only focus for the past four years,” Kelvin revealed. “I’ve studied the past winners’ works and I believe ILPOTY presents the highest standard of landscape photography in the world. It fits with what I am doing – and I also want to know how my work stacks up under its high standard judging panel.”
4.
Kai Hornung says that “I make my living as a human resources consultant in the finance industry. So, I would consider myself a semi-professional photographer”.
“It was on a business trip to Ireland back in 2016 when I started to fall in love with photographing landscapes. Before then, I had only used my camera here and there to document family life and travels. Since then, I have traveled within Europe extensively, trying to capture the beauty of nature and shaping my artistic vision,” the German photographer explained.
5.
“Landscape photography combines the joy of the outdoors and being creative,” Kai, the winner of the seventh International Landscape Photograph of the Year, told in a press release for Bored Panda. “And creativity is of vital importance for me. Since my teenage days, I have been writing lyrics and songs and singing in rock bands. Within the last four years, landscape photography has become my main creative outlet. It gives me a chance to slow down and remove myself from the sometimes hectic everyday life. For this, I am incredibly grateful.”
“Within the last few years, I have started to turn my attention away from the grand and dramatic vistas, towards the more intimate and sometimes abstract scenes. It is there that I feel I can put in more of my own, personal expression. And it feels very rewarding to have images that are truly my own, images that I discovered (or that found me), rather than just the ‘point and click’ process at famous locations,” Kai Hornung explained.
6.
“I enter photo contests here and there, always with mixed feelings because I don’t think that art is meant to compete with each other. Then again, there is another side of me that is curious to see how my images are perceived by the greatest in the world. And the fact that being awarded in one of the most prestigious contests in the world is a huge accomplishment for any photographer, simply cannot be denied,” German photographer Kai Hornung said.
“Within the landscape photography community, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year is the most important photo contest in the world. It honors artistic and visual craftsmanship, combined with the love for nature, unlike any other contest. When looking at the winners of the past and the images that get a spot in the prestigious top 101 books, I am in awe. Having had an image in last year’s book was, and still is, a true honor for me.”
English