Weather Bureau Calendar Competition

[Xebadir]

So every year the weather bureau holds this competition to select the 12 best weather images to grace the next years calendar. Perpetually, I forget to make an entry and get annoyed at myself when I see the finished product. In this years competition (2013 Calendar) there were over 600 entrants with many more entries, and I found out that 2 of my images made it into the final 30. Well this was good, but I was still not sure if I would make it. After learning a friend of mine got one in, I was anxiously hoping to receive a phonecall today and sure enough boom! Got the phonecall and was informed that my image "Six inches of Hail" taken near Marong, Victoria had made the final 12.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/1516/hail2.jpg

Rather chuffed and excited as there is a fair bit of media coverage with the calendars release, especially after the competition journo who interviewed me found out I was a storm chaser who just got back from the states. And now to do the tickled pink dance.

:efelant::efelant::efelant::efelant::efelant::efelant:

[Kerrie]

Well done :th3:

[ving]

thats a mighty fine shot. congrats!

[Wayne63]

Congratulations Well Done :th3:

[Steve Axford]

Wouldn't like to be out walking, or driving, in that one!!! Well done

[nixworries]

well done :th3::th3:

[Mark L]

:efelant::efelant::efelant::efelant::efelant::efelant::D

[crazymorton]

congrats, nice work.

can you post the other one that made the top 30?

[Ezookiel]

Is that a single exposure, or using some kind of filter?

[Duane Pipe]

Yeah well done. Nice exposure John :th3:

[ricktas]

Congratulations John

[Xebadir]

@Everyone, thank you for the kind words :).

@CrazyMorton - thanks, certainly can. I entered 5 shots (and to be honest was slightly surprised by those that didn't make the cut and those that did, but thats competition for you) Please excuse my old style watermark on this version, have a bunch of website work to do with a lot of photos to add and update to my more recent workflow.
http://www.emanatephotography.com/Landscapes/content/images/large/Sunset_on_Panorama.jpg

@Ezookiel, No filters necessary or possible for this shot - its a single Nikon 14-24 shot on a D700 at 14mm (no filters), ISO 200, 1/640 sec @ F18 handheld. Lens is stopped right down to help generate the flare effect, and metering was a touch complex but involved some guesswork and playing around. Didn't take long as to get the shot I was lying facedown in the hail (and the unmentionables on ice was the cost of this shot :lol:) that proved strong motivation. I am pretty used to working with fairly difficult exposure contrast conditions though. Not much post work either required, mainly colour correction and a slight exposure boost with the standard sharpening.

[Geoff79]

Congrats! Love the shot that made it. The 2nd one's a visual pleasure too.

[geoffsta]

Well done Xebadir. And well deserved. Many of your Storm chasing images could have made it into the calendar. They would have had trouble picking which one. :th3: