Photo Hold'em ::: Bring on the Final Four!

I've conferred with my close connects in the Illuminati & have been given clear instructions as to which 4 players will be advancing to the Hold'em Final Four. But for purely entertainment value, let's just fake a fair & balanced discussion of the merits & faults of the Semis submissions.

Giddyup!

First Heat: Darin McQuoid v. Erik Boomer

Darin:


Erik:

For me, this one's kind of a no-brainer. Boomer's unique floral framing of Nate on this splasher is awesome; I really do love this shot. But by stopping-up, he prolly had depth of field to cover foreground & subject, & sharpness when testing the shot .. but he had to compensate his exposure with a slower shutter speed. Either way, a slightly soft subject is the outcome. Darin's shot is just jaw-dropping. Pretty much my main addiction to running gorged-out creeks has to do with the kinda in-yr-face realization that you're just a temporary annoyance in an otherwise unyielding, ancient & impossibly huge environment. Sounds kooky, but nothing proves your insignificance like being gobbled up by a bunch of rock. Anyway, D's shot captures this feeling. Whether or not the subject is rapidly descending his rappel, or just pausing to enjoy the gale-force jungle powerwash, is unclear. Doesn't matter. I keep coming back to this shot again & again to stare at the gorge walls, & then my eye darts over to the subject & I realize all over again how huge that place is. The mist adds softness & motion to the stark surroundings. This shot needs to be entered into a real photo comp, like This One my bro just put on in Aspen.

WINNER: DARIN M.


Second Heat: Lane Jacobs v. Evan Ross

Lane:

"Trip Jennings at Metlako Falls, OR."

E-Ross:

Lane's shot of Trip is noteable for Metlako's size & the beauty of the amphitheater. I love the bulge of rock on R-Left & the fact that you can see in Trip's body language that he's got his LZ on lock & is calmly stomping this huge drop that only a handful of people will ever run. But I gotta give this one goes to E-Rock. I'm a sucker for contrasty lighting & I love how the rim of the gorge is baking in the sun while the gorge itself is mysteriously cool & dark, with the subject coming out of the crack into the calm sunny pool. Like Evan's last submission, the clarity & sharpness of the texture of the walls, & the depth of field rules.

WINNER: EVAN R.


Third Heat: Atom Crawford v. Evan Stafford

Atom:


E-Dotcom:

Both shots are *almost* great; both are about sense of place in very otherworldly locations. But there's something about both of them that is a bit off. A reader comment nailed it on Atom's. I think if he were to have cropped the R-Left bank, the rock formations in the greenwater would be even more called-out. I would like to see a more tightly cropped/framed shot with a paddler calmly melting this pourover. The color balance seems way warm too. Evan's shot suffers a bit from clutter in front of the subject & I think the d00dz on the rocks are distracting -- they're not even paying attention. I played around with cropping this one & when you knock them out of the picture, the canyon then becomes even more important in the shot. This is a super tough call for me, but I gotta go with Dotcom this round.

WINNER: EVAN S.


Fourth Heat: Kyle McCutchen v. Barbora Hollan

Kyle


Barbora

Another difficult pick. I had lived in CO for a lot of years before even looking at Yule. Then one summer Kyle & I dragged some friends up there & we figured it out from the top of the drainage the whole way down. It was one of the best weekends of paddling I had in CO. So Kyle knows which buttons to push here. In this shot, I love the texture of the rock in the foreground & how the creek draws a snakey line through the image. The subject isn't super sharp though & overall I think the shot suffers more from lens choice than anything -- when it gets down to it, I want to see more of the creek; I want to see the wall in Wall Check. B's shot is more about interesting swirly motion, balancing the grayscale, & unique comp. The highlights are a bit blown in the background, but that makes the subject pop. I like it. And I don't mind that she's not shooting "real" rapids -- this isn't a quien es mas macho comp, it's a photography comp, & she's got chops.

WINNER: BARBORA H.

**********
So, the Hold'em Final Four is:

Darin McQuoid vs. Evan Ross

Evan Stafford vs. Barbora Hollan

The Illuminati is pleased, and that's all that really matters.

**********

So, I was thinking about inviting all the losers thus far to submit one more ... Nevermind ...

Let the mudslingin' commence.