I decided to enter a few more photo contests this year and was recently awarded world rank #3 (and HK rank #1) by One Eyeland in their annual top 10 landscape photographers of the year award.  While the title sounds much more grand than it actualy is, the other winning photographers were all mainly professional photographers with very high quality portfolios, so it was nice to be recognized within this group.  One thing that drew me to the contest was the pool of judges.  While i do not know any of them personally, I particularly enjoy the work of two of them: Alex Noriega and Thierry Bornier.  Alex came first last year in the International Landscape Photographer of the Year award with a striking portfolio of images.

 

One Eyeland's contest was based on a point system and judged on the basis of a portfolio of 10 images.  All of my submissions earned points, but interestingly, it was "Winter Wonderland" which I shot on an iPhone (while skiing) that earned the most points.  Just goes to show again the relative (un)importance of equipment.