Herds Photo Contest Winners Announced

Thank you to all the photographers that participated in the Herds Photo Contest, sharing their best photos showing groups or gatherings of animals.

A special thanks to ViewBug's Head of Education Laurie Rubin for her collaboration as a guest judge. Laurie Rubin is an international award-winning photographer specializing in wildlife and nature photography. Her passion for photography as well as a career working for software companies, has combined her talents for teaching and sharing photography, from capture to post-processing. She currently has one of her prints displayed at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

"This is a really fun theme to judge since I’m looking for “best photos showing groups or gatherings of animals.” So, I’d like to share my thought process behind selecting the winner and runner-ups. When there are many images to go through, the first thing I do is to look through all the images quickly to see which ones stand out to me. In this case, I am looking for images that best represents the theme “Herds”, so I am looking for a large grouping of animals that makes me stop in my tracks! Next, I’ll take my initial selection of images and look at each one more closely. I’m looking for good composition, technically well captured, polished well during post-processing and again, the subject matter. If it tells a story and makes me want to stay awhile and explore the image, that will push it towards the top.

Congratulations to everyone that made it to the Finalists round! Here are a few that I selected from a really nice collection for the Herd Photo Contest."

Congratulations Grand Jury Winner "Idaho Traffic Jam" by sdondero

"This image called “Idaho Traffic Jam” really stood out to me! It fit the theme “Herds” perfectly since it was a large group of sheep being herded down the street. The photographer positioned himself in a great spot in front of the line of sheep that were coming right at him. There is steam coming off the backs of the sheep and you can see behind them, a rider on his horse and the traffic behind them. The yellow line down the center of the road also added a nice tie in to the color of the trees in the background. This is a ‘story-telling’ image that is well composed, technically well captured and great subjects to match the theme of the contest. Well done!" - Laurie Rubin

Congratulations Runner Up "With the wind in your face" by TomasTar

"What makes this image stand out is the action of these lovely herd of Icelandic horses that are making their way over to the photographer. Their flowing manes with their heads pushing against the wind gives motion and movement. The details are very nicely captured in these dark horses. My only suggestion would have been to work on darkening the overexposed part of the sky. This is a beautiful herd that demonstrates their kind nature and beauty." - Laurie Rubin

Congratulations Runner Up "The Merino's" by Nishant-101

"This is a stunning image of a herd of sheep in a valley with dramatic cloudy skies overhead. Almost all of their heads are turned towards the photographer which makes for some great eye contact and connection for the viewer. The dip in the background makes for an interesting inverse framing and holds the subject into the frame. I would suggest perhaps cropping the bottom of the image so that the legs are not being cut off. In animal photography, we like to avoid that if possible. This is a really nice image with a bit of humor and drama mixed in together." - Laurie Rubin

Congratulations Runner Up "White angels" by DanielKordan

"I have seen many photos of the White Horses of Camargue, but this image has such a dreamy quality about it. The pastel colors are beautiful! Also, being in front of a herd of running horses takes some courage! The photographer also go some nice separation between the horses which is also a challenge when they are all running together. If the photographer was a little over to the right so that the far right horse wasn’t running out of the frame, this would have been a big winner! This is a really lovely image." - Laurie Rubin

Congratulations Amateur Winner "Zebras at begining of migration - Masai Mara Kenya" by travelcat