Thursday, March 22, 2007

Photo Hold'em | The World Cup of Photo Hold'em!

The First (possibly) Annual World Cup of TRL Photo Hold'em continues! Now it's time to turn over the last card each finalist will play .. the last cards in the whole shootin' match. We started this project back in like October, so we thank you for putting up with the duration of this marathon.

DARIN'S HOLD'EM HAND EXPOSED




Mas GRANDE












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BARBORA'S HAND




Close-up:












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That's all folks. The dealer will announce the winners of the (possibly) Annual Hold'em World Cup & the Biggest Leuzer Evan vs. Evan Deathmatch shortly .. so check back with us soon.

23 comments:

GYGK said...

Alas here we are, with the last chance to talk a little smack. I mean voice our professional opinions, of course.
Once again Darin's shot is fantastic. Well framed, keeps my curiousity peeked as to what lies in the landing. Good Color contrast. But yet again, another big huck.
Barboras shot is, in my opinion, her ace. She did several things really well, my favorite being that she managed to make Big water, look BIG. A very difficult thing to do sometimes. I also like how she used the light to make a very artistic shot. And yet again, I'm left wondering what the hell is about to happen? do those guys get munched by either of the holes?
Choosing a winner here comes down to pure personal choice. Kind of like choosing PBR for a wild night of debauchery or a good bottle of Red Wine to enjoy.
Personally I'm going with Barbora for reasons stated in the previous comment post. I just like the variety. But I must say, if I were to ever run something big, I might want Darin to take the photo, he's got a pretty good Gift at getting good shots.
Thanks for teh competition Rangelife!
Austin R.

E.G. said...

well i have to say looking at the pics i do like all the artsy shots, but darins pictures are just better he does not need to put wierd filters or colors over his pictures there just goood in their raw format. i dig that it shows the talent of the man behind the camera not the skillz on photoshop. and i would take pbr over wine any night of the week, by the way. eg

Todd Gillman said...

dang austin, that was your best rant yet .. seriously!

& thanks for following along this whole time guys. after holdem goes away, we're gonna have to invent a way to keep y'all interested in our boring day-to-day ;-]

GYGK said...

Boring day to day todd? it's time to get it on bro! I know you guys have water up seattle way, we've got plenty down hood river way...Why don't you keep these folks entertained the old fashioned way...with some good old fashioned kayakin.

Me, austin, again

slickhorn said...

gotta go with a vote for darin. just my personal taste, I like natural color in my shots, one of my chief attractions to boatin in the first place is the simple beauty of moving water, it's color and texture -- that's a big part of a gorgeous shot to me.

Nice cards by both players! Time to count the chips!

--B

slickhorn said...

Barbora, is your first card a tight crop of the first hole of th double drop in your final card? I like the paddler action in that tight crop. wider angle really shows the conesquences of the first hole -- nice sequence.

Anonymous said...

Barbora!

I feel like Darin was bluffing and just turned over a 9 of clubs. Its crisp and all, but my point and shoot takes a crisp photo in California's sunshine. Also, the shot makes me dizzy, I think it needs rotated 90 degrees. If I were flipping through a magazine, and saw Darin's I'd say, "cool" and flip the page. If I saw Barbora's, I'd say, "interesting, where is that? whats going on? that's an interesting and 'different' image." Plus I really like how the people on the shore almost fade into the background, like zombies :)
laters ...

Anonymous said...

Darin takes it.

Austin, you make it sound like a big huck is a bad thing. Shots of big hucks aren't inherrently bad. What annoys me about so many 60' drop shots is that the photographers often use the drop as an excuse to slack off on composition. Darin's has composition in spades.

Also, Barbora's shot kinda irks me. Postprocessing is an essential part of photography, but the PP work here is heavy handed. The highlights and shadows are blown. What's left is more of an impressionist painting than a photograph.

Darin said...

Only one of those five shots is a drop over 20' so redefine "big huck" I guess as I left my larger ones out in preference of the pretty smaller ones.

Anonymous said...

gotta go with Darin, the big rapel and the huge boof stole the last hand of the night.

Anonymous said...

I like Barbora's shots- they are artistic and interesting. However, I am going with Darin- his shots are crisp and colorful and get me excited just looking at them!
Tina

Unknown said...

I have not been a huge fan of Barboras pics throughout the comp, but I think she has a royal flush with this final hand. It seems she has something different with all her shots. I like that she is taking some risks with her artistic flare. Darins hand may be four of a kind but he did not seem to take the risks that barbora did. I like the variety that Barbra has shown. I think she stepped outside the box more than all of us. Good job Barbora!

Anonymous said...

"variety in Barbora's shots!?"

3 of them were shot from the exact same vantage point. I'm pretty sure that 2 of them came from the same 5-shot burst.

Anonymous said...

I've gotta agree with kennet on this one, two shots from the same spot of the same rapid. This and similar post processing on three shots to help deal with overexposure just doesn't do it for me.

The paddler chilling on the rock could have a great wilderness feel to it, but that banner just kills it.

Anonymous said...

you boys have it backwards. If in fact your assumptions are correct, she was able to get several great photos from the same place...thats photography skill. Especially since they all look different. I agree with her hand being a royal flush!

Anonymous said...

It's not photography skill when you can tell it's the same spot and both are overexposed. Shots #1 and #5 look like she stood in the same spot and zoomed in for one shot, big deal.

Anonymous said...

ok anonymous barbora hater....do better.

Anonymous said...

I liked the variety of Barbara's photos throughout this competition. Although I don't think that she played her best hand for the final, she did motivate me to purchase a Nikon digital SLR for next years competition. However, this is a WHITEWATER photo competion, not an artsy exhibition. All of Darin's photos capture exceptional whitewater action. Even if some of the drops are unrunnable by mere mortals, they all make me want to hang up my tele-skis, and dust off my kayak (does anyone remember the T-slalom?) In my opinion, Darin deserves to win the first annual photo hold'um.........hands down!

E4

Cutch said...

I vote Darin. It makes me want to kayak more.

Kyle

Anonymous said...

sickbird

Anonymous said...

Rad

Todd Gillman said...

WTF?

Cut it out, fools.

Anonymous said...

dude we need some results, who won the contests already...