ShutterXpose once again takes the opportunity to congratulate the winners and all the participants for their active participation and making our 1st photography competition a great success. The continuous support from the Judges, Coordinators (Prashanth, Rakshak, Rilson, Yogee & Unni Krishnan) and the readers helped us with brighter ideas and high spirits (no pun intended). Participants who couldn’t attend the function are requested to email us with their mobile numbers ASAP, so as the certificates could be delivered.

Pictures of the event: (by Prashanth Shetty)

K.H. (Astro) Mohan is an International renowned photographer with over 19 years in Photo Journalism and currently works as a Senior News photographer of a popular national Kannada daily newspaper Udayavani published from Manipal, India. He hails from Bellary (Hassan, India) and completed his early education as an Art Graduate. An incredibly versatile person with a rare blend of multiple talents, Mr Mohan is also a magician, astrologer, palmist, orator, artiste, art critic and to top it a prudent organiser of shows. It was his intense interest in astrology which led to him being nicknamed as ‘Astro’ and now widely called by this nickname among friends and well wishers.

He has earned over 2 dozens State & National prestigious awards till date. His picture “Karavali Kambala” bagged  the First Prize in an International Level Photography Competition, held by Nikon in United Kingdom. He has travelled and exhibited his photo worldwide and also been felicitated by various photography associations, he was recently honored by the India International Photographic Council (IIPC) in Hyderabad.

Astro Mohan believes in sharing knowledge, he teaches at various universities and conducts various photography workshops over the last decade. He is a distinguished member of Photography Society of America (PSA), Karnataka Photographers Association (KPA), Udupi Press Photographers Association (UPPA).

Gafoor Moodadi is a professional  photographer currently working as ‘Senior Photographer’ at Kuwait Institute of scientific Research (KISR). He has been working for KISR for more than two decades. He is basically from Kerala and after graduation took his credential in Photography & Videography from  Southern Film Institute, Trivandrum.  The long 25 years of his career in India and Kuwait has bestowed him a variety of experience. He started his career in Kuwait at Ministry of Health. His acquaintance with Al Wasseela Advertising Center and Tahani art Gallery as commercial photographer gave him a vast experience. He is been vocal with his pictures and has been supporting the local and international dailies in Kuwait. Presently he is supporting the leading Malayalam daily “Malayala Manorama“, Kuwait Bureau.

He has earned various prestigious awards in Kuwait for his excellence in photography such as as Indira Gandhi Award, C.M. Stephen Cultural Center Award, KOC Award & the Scientific Center Award. Indian associations have honored him for his contributions to the betterment of society through his pictures. He always come up with photographs which has life in it representing the real world around.

Abey Jose Arthinkal is a professional photographer with a graduation degree in commerce. He hails from a beautiful town of Alleppey in Kerala, India. Abey took photography at a young age of 15 years capturing beautiful moments around him, people realised his potential and was requested to photograph weddings. He has a vast hand-on experience with both film and digital photography, he ventured into full time wedding photography and was quite successful, his personal interest though always continued to inspiring him to capture nature and landscape photography. He moved to kuwait in 1997 and is currently working as a Financial Manager with Blue & Navy International Shipping Co. Over the recent years he has taken a back-foot in professional photography because of his busy schedule and family life.

ShutterXpose managing team is overwhelmed by the support of these judges and hope to receive their continuous guidance, advice and critics as always. We wish you all great success ahead and thanks for being part of our journey.

The winners are:

1. Shafimon Choolookaran (1st Prize)
2. Joy Roshan (2nd Prize)
3. Nabeel Sab (3rd Prize)

Congratulation’s !!!

Brief Summary of the Contest

The contest was open to all residents of Kuwait. The contestant had to upload their best image based on the theme of the contest and invite their friends and folks to vote for their image. The Photo contest had a considerable good response. We received a total of 37 entries and only 25 entries were qualified and moderated based on the theme, the contest was held for a 1 month period (19th August – 19th September, 2012). The contest received a total of 3000+ votes from more than 10 countries including Kuwait. As per the rules Top 5 entries with maximum votes were selected to qualify for the Judges technical evaluation round, the last 48 hrs of the contest was quite interesting with votes swinging in favour of few participants, finally there were Ties in 3 spots which ultimately gave 8 entrants to enter the evaluation round.

The Jury (3 judge panel) members had a daunting task ahead, each jury member had to evaluate the image based on the following technical criteria :

• Does the Image suit the Theme of the contest
• Composition and
• Overall impact (Lighting, Sharpness and creativity)

The total point system was on a scale of 10, at the end of the evaluation round the total aggregate point from all the judges against each image were calculated and the final 3 winners were selected.

The 3 panel Jury members are Professional photographer who have excelled in the field of photography with couple of awards under their name. A brief summary of their portfolio would be added in my coming post soon.

Congratulation to all the participants. Taking part in such photography contest is just a stepping stone to your long cherished dream to be recognised as a photographer.

We at ShutterXpose extend our warm wishes to all the participants, Indians in Kuwait (IIK), Blogger Mathai, The Grapevine Kuwait as well the readers here for helping us to make this contest a great success. ShutterXpose would organise many such contests in the future.

Photo Slideshow of all contest entrants

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