Round 2 Voting Closed: 2020 Pinkbike Photo of the Year Contest

 It seems that approximately 74.4% of voters disagree

 @el-nombre: I think quite a few didn't get it. Took me a some seconds myself.

 He gets robbed every year. He's had some of my favorites over the years and they always seem to get knocked out early.

 @prevail: WAIT. You mean to suggest that in this culture of rapid information consumption, nuance and the art of subtlety are lost on the masses?

 @erikkellison: Might also just be that if you're looking at it on a phone, the picture is tiny and you can't see the details that make it such a great shot. But yeah. What you said too. Kids these days...

 Yeah, I can’t even imagine how he pulled that off. I’d like to think people just didn’t understand it or assumed it was done in post production.

 Absolutely, what a disgrace along with Huth losing out to the easiest and most photographed spot ever.

 @erikkellison: what subtlety. That photo is 100% gimmick?

 @toast2266: He won once a few years back. He's one of my favourite photographers

 @prevail:
I don’t get why there is a glass window in the middle of that bike trail...

 @bananowy: the majority of entrants this year are landscapes to some degree.

They get votes. Technical merit and creativity do not, unfortunately, win this contest.

 @bananowy: You've got bigger problems if you can't see the rider in Huth's photo.

 @pourquois-pas: Yeah, agreed. I don't wanna say I was disappointed when I saw the final 32 because that would be too harsh on the photogs, but I was surprised by the ratio of National Geographic shots to actual mountain biking action photos - even more than last year.

For me, in this specific contest, capturing the rider's movement/flow down the trail is king. Ross Bell's is my favourite here, though the match-up with Olsen was super tough. Both fantastic at showing motion in a still shot.

 delete

 Honestly, I think a lot of people must be looking at these photos on their phones. I had to make Laue's pic pretty large to actually see what's going on there. Awesome shot tho! Shame he's already voted out. I really liked Calvin Huth's photo as well. Was shocked that it was eliminated in the first round too. But figured it maybe suffered from the same fate. Hard to see the rider on a smaller screen.

 @bananowy: To each their own. But personally for me, it's about the overall composition. Starting with showcasing the surroundings, nature etc. And then tying a great shot of some riding into that backdrop. Living in the western US, my riding is as much about the scenery and environments as it is about the actual ride itself. And I KNOW I'm not the only rider on here who feels this way.

 @tmwjr777: I've said that before in years past. I appreciate the ones where the photograph is set up spectacularly, whether its the background or the foreground, or the action, or what the biker is doing, or perspective and focus. But the epic scenery ones that are composed well just speak to me. They convey a feeling of the freedom and stress relief that is riding out in the open. The colors and epic backgrounds and bike guy being out there does it for me visually.

 @tmwjr777: I'm using a large screen and my opinion on tiny riders stands. I would agree 100% with you if it was an art photo contest or nature photo contest, but it's not. Laue's work is genius but not "the best mtb pic".

I totally get how scenery is a massive part of mtb, I feel you. I still think if the rider is an afterthought in the pic, it's not a great mtb photo. Of course it can't just be generic shralping in a boring spot either.

The ideal photo for me would combine making the rider prominent and capturing movement well (doesn't have to be a crazy trick or air, more about conveying that elusive flow) with a fantastic surrounding. Cadosch and Gibbins do both very well for example, although I wish they were face shots instead of ass shots. Bell's is by far the best riding shot IMHO and not like the surrounding is not beautiful in it, just not as vast. Mashon has a great combo of impressive riding with an epic background and the rider is highlighted even though it's not a close-up so it can be done.

I'd say right now my 1st and 2nd place are Bell and Mashon.

 @toast2266: Yeah, I would guess that most people are checking these out on their phone and missing a lot of detail and nuance which is a shame. There are more that a few photos that look miles better than the winner when viewed on a large screen.

 That would be really f**king cool!!!

 The waterfall might be favorite. Either that one, or Jan Cadosch's.

 Laue's photo is very impressive technically and must have been incredibly difficult to pull off but it is more about the technical challenge of taking the photo than the photo itself. It is not actually that pleasing to look at at a glance and you have to examine it closely to understand what he has managed to achieve.

 @Patrick9-32: And he could use the exact same setup to take a picture of his dog, his car, his house and enter them in contests for animal, car, or architecture photography.

Nice technical work - not capturing much about mountain biking though.

 Well deserved man! Best luck for the following rounds!

 @qphoto: thank you dude!

 It has been a fun endeavour in my second life.

 Yep! Red box is the one you’ve chosen to vote through to the next round!

 Always a crapshoot in these things - especially when you have two completely different images pitted against each other! That whole gallery from Ross was insane - and that image definitely stood out.

And yes, it was grass. I think my back is still dirty from lying there for so long

 www.pinkbike.com/news/video-specialized-status-review-aluminum-frame-with-high-end-suspension-review.html

 Yeah, it's either specialized using the streisand effect to attempt to increase buzz, which ( if they are) is weird and kinda gross in my opinion..... Or pinkbike told Levy to redo his homework. It was pretty biased. Levy always seems pretty biased in favor of specialized bikes. He praised it's cornering so much, without acknowledging that the better suspension and tires or his test bike would obviously make it corner better than a stock bike, chassis (geo and flex characteristics) is very important to handling, but it's not the only factor. But I didn't watch the video, so maybe he was a bit more more honest and up front about the limitations of his review in it.

 @kcy4130: I think it was taken down beacause he talked about the 160mm of rear travel while it only had 140mm.

 Ha ha, thanks dude. Consider yourself added to my Christmas card list.

 #lightbro

 What was the comment about?

 Dan Milner's ?
Yeah I think I voted for it. As beautiful as the other one is, Milner's one has that weird flattened perspective making the ground look like a wall, and the tiny cloud just at the right place right time.

 Maybe that's because Dan's photo feels so artificial. The riders' poses are clearly exaggerated, there is no trail where they are riding, nothing about it makes you think even for a second that they've really just been climbing there (obviously I know all photos are staged but the art is in making it not feel as such).

It just screams "yeah guys get over there and pretend you're climbing super hard; don't forget your brightest matchy-matchy kits". Looks like taken straight from a cheesy 90's paper magazine ad.

 @bananowy: To me it looks like there's a trail. And the cloud is hardly staged.

 @Will-narayan: After looking closer, I think you're right and the trail is there. My bad. But I stand by the rest of what I said.

 @bananowy: You really don't like this picture much haha :p
The original caption says "Climbing above the valley floor after a morning of rain", so if the "wall" behind indeed is the valley floor, they may be climbing a 20% grade slope there, if so their poses may not be really exaggerated^^

 @Will-narayan: Hard to really actively dislike any of those 32 because they're all superb quality, absolutely don't want to be a dick to Dan Milner (not that he cares about my opinion) It's less "dislike" than "like less than others in this great set".

If it helps, it's not my least favourite, that would be the ones where you can't see the riders.

But yeah for some reason it struck me as a bit off and instantly reminded me of something like this: www.pinkbike.com/photo/20150271

 Or it could just be Jan Cadosch's pic is really, really good. It's combines beautiful scenery with great lighting and a biker you can actually see clearly. The only flaw is that it's an ass shot.

 @bananowy: Ok, in a way it show how stupid all these contests are as we all have different criteria. So then we just have to take it the other way : No criteria matters, just vote for what we like. I think 75% of those I voted for are gone in the 1st round. I didn't necessarily voted for the one I prefere, more for the one where I thought there was more "work" or "thought process", but I may also be wrong.

What I liked most about Milner's pic is the "Inception" effect we get from the valley ground getting so vertical. Obviously you perceived it very differently :p

 It's a photography contest. Their is no "best" except in the opinion of the viewers. The vote determines which photo was liked by the most people. Voting is a perfect way to do the contest. I'm not sold on the tournament style match-up thing either, but would you really prefer they ran the photos through a google algorithm and just announced the winner?

 Fixed, thanks!

 I think that a bow legged runner in the photo.

 +1

What's with the nature shots with tiny, almost invisible bikes? Is this PB or NatGeo?

 The losers of matchups 1, 9 and 10 lost for precisely the same reason I’m criticizing the matchup 13 winner. Change my mind.