We've assembled a solid team of judges for the Pinkbike Photo of the Year Contest, possibly the best team ever actually. These are the guys that will be taking the more than 5000 photos that have been nominated, and narrowing that number down to the best 32. At that point it will be handed over to you to vote on your favorites until we have a winner.
The Judges are:
Ian HylandsIan is Pinkbike's photo editor and main staff photographer, and he's been shooting mountain biking for more than 15 years. He has worked for many of the industries larger companies shooting catalogs and ads, and in his spare time he teaches an action photography course at the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts. He contributes many photo stories to Pinkbike including such stories as
El Salvador and
Diamondback in Utah, as well as several
photo tutorials that can be found here on the photo page.
| I'm really excited by the huge number of amazing images on Pinkbike, and hopefully this contest will bring a little more recognition to some of our great but mostly unknown photographers. In my search for the POD I'm always looking for new ones. - Ian |
Sterling LorenceSterl should really need no introduction. As one of the mountain bike industries top photographers his work can be seen in magazines around the world as well as catalogs and ads for many different companies in the mountain bike world. His stories on Pinkbike include
Trek's C3 Project in Maui as well as the great retrospective piece
North Shore in 1998.
| With so many images being submitted and so many great mountain bike images to choose from, the top image(s) will have to have some serious stoke level to them. Firstly, the image has to be intriguing on first impression... as soon as the eyes land on the shot. If you break down what generally creates such intrigue, i would have to say that the rider's action rules large, followed by solid composition, angle, creativity by the photog to help lift the action of the rider. Brilliant use of light by either the sun or strobe will be the cherry on top. Further... a bit of progressiveness in photography that is looking 2012-2013 would be cool... good luck!!! - Sterl |
HarookzHarookz is another photographer that probably doesn't need much of an introduction. He is also one of the industries top photographers and works for many of the companies in the mountain bike world. He did a great story for Pinkbike about the
Gravity Team in Alaska and he has some solid photos in his profile.
| Having to sift through 5000 images is not an easy task. Having a technically well shot image isn't enough to steal my vote. I want to look at a photo and have it pull me off my couch to get on my bike! Show me something new! - Harookz |
Margus RigaMargus Riga was a journalism student, who became a ski bum, who turned into photographer. Now Margus takes journalistic photos of athletes and artists living the dream for companies that advertise the dream. Margus has made some great photographic contributions to Pinkbike over the past year or two, including
The Zone and
Ride On | I think getting the photos down to thirty-two will be the easy part. The hard part will be trying to decide on one out of those thirty two to take the top spot, because those thirty-two photos will all be epic. Luckily we won't have to do that part! - Margus |
Fraser BrittonFraser Britton is a 33 year old photojournalist specializing in action sports and he's been shooting images for Pinkbike for more than a few years. An ex DH racer, he was one of our two World Cup race photographers this year, and he's the team photographer for Monster Specialized. This keeps him pretty busy traveling on the World Cup circuit during the year, in the off season he likes to hang out at home in Deep Cove and riding deep loamy trails and pretending it's not monsooning outside. He's well qualified to do bike reviews for us, especially if it's a DH bike like the
Intense M9. He also started one of the original downhill race news print magazines and websites called Transcend Magazine over 14 years ago, and he worked with the original print downhill magazine, Plush.
| The Pinkbike photo challenge is going to be a mission for the judges. I can tell that there's a ton of worthy images, just by flipping through them.Cutting down 6000+ photos to just 32 is going to take an awful lot of Cariboo! - Fraser |
Colin MeagherColin Meagher was the other half of our World Cup photography team this year, and he has years of experience shooting action sports. He's a long time contributor to magazines such as Bike, and like the rest of our judges he works for many of the bigger companies in the bike industry. He also still does a fair bit of work for non bike companies such as Patagonia. He has contributed such great Pinkbike stories as the
2011 World Cup Preview, and at this time of the year he can often be found in the forests of the PNW harvesting Morels, Chanterelles, and other tasty treats...
| I'll be looking for imagery that inspires me to go ride. Sure, composition wil be key, as will be lighting; but to me, what 's even more important than either of those is soul. The shots that have those components plus a healthy dose of soul are the shots I will rate highest, regardless of whether they are dirt jumping, urban riding, full blown DH, lifestyle, or epic all mountain riding. - Colin Meagher |
See complete photo of the Year details here -
Pinkbike Photo of the YearYou can see
all photos currently nominated hereThanks to
Specialized,
Marzocchi,
Race Face,
Tioga,
F-Stop Gear and
Spy
A professional photographer will judge a photo and have different priorities of importance than an average layperson. I’ve seen some really cool photos that were “technically” crap
All the photos will be judged on how much we like them, that's the only real criteria, it's not science... However what we like comes down to photos that are usually going to have great action, great lighting, great composition, are creative, and inspiring. And Sterl, Harookz and Colin all hinted at what they're looking for above if you read it.
good luck, guys