© Daniel Walczyk

Photoworkshop.com member Daniel G. Walczyk participated in the "Shoot the Hills Photography Competition" in the Hocking Hills region of southern Ohio, April 21 & 22.  Over 150 photographers in three divisions (film, digital and junior) competed in five categories in each division: abstract, flora, human interest, landscape and wildlife.  Competitors could enter up to six images total in their choice of categories.  All photographers had from 1:00pm Friday, April 20 to 1:00pm Saturday, April 21 to shoot their images.  Competitors in the digital division were required to submit their entries (both RAW files and competion JPEGs) on CD by 4:00pm on Saturday, while film competitors were required to turn in their film for processing by 1:00pm on Saturday and then had two and a half hours on Sunday morning to review and edit their slides for entry submissions.
 
All submitted images went through a preliminary round of judging based on the following criteria:
Artistic Merit & Composition  (1-10 points)
Technical Quality  (1-10 points)
Originality (1-10 points)
Level of Photographic Challenge (1-10 points)
 
In the preliminary judging round, any image that was deemed to be of a quality meriting more than 100 points advanced to the final judging round, where each of 5 judges scored each image individually based on the above criteria and point system for a possible total of 200 points.  Two honorable mentions and 1st through 3rd place winners were chosen, based on a tally of each of the five scores determined by the judges.  The image with the highest score in each of the 3 divisions was awarded the grand prize for that division, regardless of the category into which it was entered.  Digital division competitors were required to shoot in RAW format and could not manipulate their images in "layers" in photoshop prior to submission.  The only allowable adjustments to the RAW photo were those that can be made in the Adobe RAW engine and could have potentially been done "in camera."  No cropping for compositional adjustments was allowed!
 
Daniel participated in the digital division—4 of the 5 images he submitted advanced to the final round of judging, AND he was awarded the first prize in the Wildlife Category-Digital Division. 

The weekend proved to be a great test of all the photographers' creative and technical skills.  The Hocking Hills region covers four counties in southern Ohio and all images had to be created within the four counties.  It is an awesome region for nature and wildlife photography, and the weather was beautifully cooperative—even though the bright sun in the forested areas often made for difficult, high-contrast lighting conditions.  Daniel highly recommends the event to any photographer who is up for a great challenge and a fun-filled weekend.  His studio partner also participated and they met some great people and great photographers over the weekend.
 
For any further information on the competition and for the judges biographies, please visit http://www.shootthehills.com.
 
http://www.wystudios.com
http://wystudios.photoworkshop.com
http://portfolios.com/wystudios

We congratulate Daniel Walczyk on his success! Photoworkshop.com members, don't be shy. Share your photographic triumphs with us at editor@photoworkshop.com. We'll post your story in Double Exposure's "Member News."

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