Amazing Surprise – Gold Medal in Austria!

My previous post sounded a sad note, a story in memory of my mother – also our Ozone Zone editor.
Today’s story is quite different and exciting.

My hummingbird gets 2nd place at IGPOTY 2013 (Wildlife category)

Only a week after receiving news about getting a 2nd place at the International Garden Photography of the Year 2013 organized in UK at the famous KEW Gardens, I received a message from Austria: Gold Medal at the huge, internationally important Austrian TRIERENBERG SUPER CIRCUIT 2013.

TRIERENBERG SUPER CIRCUIT is by far the largest salon of photography in the world. It is based in Linz, Austria, and in recent years it has attracted hundreds of thousands of picture entries – from almost every country. It is the aim of the competition run annually by the salon to exhibit the finest work in different styles, techniques and genres.

Dilemma – with Michael Ward and Lady Kimberly Rose (and Skye landscape). Gold Medal in nude category.

The Super Circuit attracts photographers of almost every background, both amateur and professional. It has established a reputation for very high standards and is therefore highly respected around the world. The honour of winning is even bigger, knowing that this year they received staggering twenty-something thousand entries!

My winning image, called Dilemma, results from a long collaboration with a brilliant, experienced arts model, Michael Ward from Victoria. Do you remember that bluish photo of The Mighty Knight? Yes, that was another image we did with Michael…

Dilemma was created in several stages. Firstly, I photographed Michael in a sitting, meditative pose. Next, I photographed a closeup of a body, to create a body-scape. It had to be shot from exactly the same angle, with the same lighting, to look real after matching both elements.  For that close-up we invited another fine model, Lady Kimberly Rose. The rest happened on Photoshop. Michael placed on Kimberly’s body-scape looked good. I added shadows andsome small indents where Michael was sitting to make it more realistic,  but it lacked the oomph with studio background. Luckily I remembered about dramatic landscape of the Skye, Scotland, and pulled one of my photos of a light house from there. Yes, it instantly added character. Turning it to near black-and-white with some added roughness of texture worked for me, and the image was done.

While I feel that my work with Michael is among my best, little did I know it will win Gold!

Anatomy Lesson.
From top left: Kristin Urbanheart Grant, Tom Gore,
From lower left: Aleta Eliasen, Dusty, Derek Galon, Jon Hoadley, Herman Surkis, David Goatley. In horizontal position: Michael Ward.
Body paint: Kristin Urbanheart, Makeup: Aleta Eliasen,
Jon: lighting master, Dusty: costumes,
Derek: additional body fx
Herman: deliver the liver.

To end this happy news, I would like to share with you yet another photo created with Michael. This time we invited fellow photographers and artists as models. As you perhaps notice, this image was inspired by Rembrandt, and it was sheer fun to recreate Rembrandt-style lighting (with great help of a fine photographer Jon Hoadley, real master of lighting), bringing up painterly textures of faces and fabrics. Michael did get body-painted, I added some touches to his look later on my computer – and hey, we all are quite happy with the result.

I hope you like it too…  until next time,
Derek

After work – time for fun and a “family photo”. Michael’s awakening – Doctor tells him his liver is wasted and demonstrates it to us all…

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Photographs copyright of Derek Galon, please respect the copyright.

The Gold-winning image is available at Photo Art Gallery Vibrante