Photography Tutorial · 2019-03-03
A Visual Feast: The 101 Most Beautiful Nature Landscape Photos of 2018
Thomas Chu Photo
The International Landscape Photographer of the Year is a landscape photography contest whose primary standard is visual expression, and its high-quality winning photos have always been impressive.
Every year, the judges select 101 annual photos from the submissions, along with several special grand prizes. The 2018 winning works were very rich in subject and style — precipitous peaks, mysterious forests, stunning rocks...
Appreciating these wonderful works not only offers a visual feast, but also provides plenty of inspiration for pre- and post-processing.
Landscape Photographer of the Year
To win the Landscape Photographer of the Year award, a photographer needs four photos ranked at the top with the highest scores — a test of the photographer's overall ability.
The Landscape Photographers of the Year for the previous two years were Alex Noriega and Max Rive, both highly recognizable landscape photography masters. Thomas introduced these two photographers in his article "5 Landscape Photographers Worth Following on 500px" (《500px上最值得关注的5位风光摄影师》).
This year's Landscape Photographer of the Year is Adam Gibbs from the United States. Adam is a flower and garden photographer with more than 20 years in the field. His long-term, in-depth observation of plants allows him to capture the tenacious, mysterious, or vital sides of flowers, plants, and trees.
The natural life in Adam's photos is full of personality, making viewers marvel at the photographer's observation and capture abilities. Adam's control over the frame is also first-rate — composition, layering, tonality, and color all demonstrate a very high standard.
Landscape Photograph of the Year
If the Photographer of the Year tests long-term accumulation, the Photograph of the Year requires more of a flash of inspiration.
Thomas has seen many photos of similar scenes, but few achieve such perfection. Viewing this photo, we're first struck by the contrast of light and shadow in nature, the coexistence of warm and cool tones, the geometric beauty of lines and color blocks, and the mirror-like reflections.
Then we feel the photographer's brilliance. The well-judged framing and composition keep the frame rich in information while introducing almost no redundant, cluttered elements.
Best in Category of the Year
This year's contest also added best-in-category awards for five categories: fog/mist, ice and snow, trees, sunrise and sunset, and aerial abstraction.
Worth celebrating: Chinese photographer Zhu Xiao (枪炮玫瑰), with his exceptionally magnificent capture of a sunrise over Argentina's Fitz Roy peak, took first place in the sunrise and sunset category.
The other best-in-category photos of the year also demonstrate a very high standard.
TOP 101 Photos of the Year
Apart from the special awards above, the rest of the 101 nature landscape photos of 2018 are also wonderful.
Here Thomas has selected some photos he particularly likes, along with the winning works of all Chinese-descended photographers.
For a more complete list of works, visit the contest's official website
www.internationallandscapephotographer.com
All images in this article are quoted from the contest's official website
https://www.internationallandscapephotographer.com/
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