2014 East Coast Surfing Championships Preview

I'm excited to say that this will be my third year teaming up with ECSC360 to photograph the East Coast Surfing Championships in Virginia Beach since Lee Rosenberg of East Beach Photography drafted me over lunch one afternoon. ECSC360 has done an incredible job providing media coverage for all of the activities that occur during the championships while promoting the individuals that make up the media team.

I'll be arriving in town Tuesday night, August 19 and will be on the beach Wednesday morning for the start of the main event. If you are coming down to join the festivities please stop by to say hi. You should be able to find me somewhere along the water's edge wearing a ECSC360 t-shirt and draped in camera gear. Here is a sampling from the 2013 contest:

I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing you there. Follow me on Twitter @TravisOwney for updates throughout the competition and view photos on either Facebook (follow Travis Owney) or on Travis Owney Photography. Oh...if you are coming to the oceanfront or not, please pray for waves!

DGrin Sharp Shooter Challenge #8

Splintered
Iso 200, f/22.0, 28 mm, 3 image HDR

One of the best photo contests in which I have competed is being conducted on Digital Grin. It started of as a weekly challenge series where participants were vying for bragging rights and minimal prizes. Last year it morphed into the Last Photographer Standing (LPS), a format based on the popular reality show "Last Comic Standing" where a weekly contest was conducted and each winner went on to compete in the final rounds for gift certificates to B&H Photo, free Smugmug hosting, and other prizes. When LPS concluded, a vacuum was created when the managing pro elected to leave the competition for personal reasons.

True to form, the great people at Smugmug came together and developed an even better format for the contest. Emily (GreenSquared), a respected member of the community and truly talented photographer, volunteered to coordinate the contest and has done nothing short of an incredible job at not only managing the events but also adapting to requests from the rest of the community. Unlike many contests, feedback from participants is encouraged and photographers will often post their perspective entries prior to submission to get advice on selection, composition, theme relevance, technical content, and emotional impact from the very same group of people with whom they are competing. Surprisingly, their competition provides true feedback sometimes at the cost of their own entry being surpassed. It is a contest and a group that cares more about the betterment of photography than simply winning. Something unusual nowadays.

If you are a photographer and wish to improve your skills, I encourage you to enter. On the other hand if you are a spectactor that just enjoys viewing awesome images, I encourage you to stop by the entry threads on a regular basis to see some of the great works that are posted. The contest is held every 2 weeks and usually is based on the photographer having to choose between one of two opposing themes. It is amazing to see some of the interpretations come to life.

In the spirit of the competition, I will post a reminder with a link to the latest submission thread as well as the photo that I am considering entering in the round. Feel free to provide any feedback that you wish. The theme for DSS #8 is Weathered or Polished. For this round I went with the following entry: "Splintered". Wish me luck!