Behind The Photo contest - Edition #3

The Behind The Photo contest continues with Edition #3!

Just like the first edition, the second edition was full to the brim with very interesting and captivating stories spiced with a tutorial here and there, and we expect nothing less from this third edition! If you haven't looked into previous entries, search for the #behindthephoto tag, and you will find them.

For those of you who haven't read the background for this contest, here's a quick re-cap.

There's a lot of great photographers (both pro and amateur) on this platform. But sometimes we feel that we want to know what the story behind a particular photo was. The "why"-s and the "how"-s and the "when"-s and so on. We thought that the story behind could be just as interesting (if not more) than the actual photo itself. Also, being amateur photographers, we felt that it would be great to "pick the brains" of all the pros. To perhaps learn new techniques, tricks, planning, gear and everything else they know so much better.

That's how the idea of "Behind The Photo" was born. This contest is not about the photo itself, but about the process before or during the photo was taken. (If you decide to enter this contest, you can of course include the "final" photo if you want. :-) )

We would like you to share and document your journey towards the photo - with text and/or photo(s) or even video(s). We would like to know your thoughts, ideas, decision process and the story behind. For example:

Was it spontaneous, in the moment? Then show/tell us about why. What prompted you to take the photo?
Was it planned? Then show/tell us about your preparations.
Who or what were you going to photograph? For what? This contest, a magazine, for this platform?
When did you take the picture?
How did you take the picture?
- Camera, tripod, lenses, filters, etc.
Did you have to travel to where you took it?
Did you have to wait for the right moment?
Where did you take the picture?
- Was it during a vacation, or while walking to the supermarket?
- Was it deep in a forest, waiting for animals to walk by, or with your dog in your backyard?
- Was it outside in freezing snow and ice, or inside a warm and comfortable high-end studio?
Did you do any post-processing?
- What software did you use? Filters, cropping, retouching, colours etc.

All of these are ideas which we think could help you make a good entry for the contest and we would like you to use as many of them as you can.

In the first edition, we made a "quick and dirty" example, just to show you what you could do. Or not. Because we are sure you can do better, that was just an example. The link to that and the first edition post is here.

If you want to check out previous editions' winners and their excellent entries, here are the links:

Edition #2

1st place @manoldonchev - Knowledge Or The Long Way — A Behind The Photo Story — #2

@manoldonchev told us about his experiences with capturing lightning during a rainy night, and how he learned to do it in the correct way (as opposed to the hard way). So he also taught us how to make long exposures during the daytime as well as when it's dark.

2nd place @tarazkp - Behind the Photo: Horror through fences

@tarazkp shared his experience from visiting Auschwitz and the significant impact the visit made on him, on a very personal level. It made the reader stop and think about what human suffering and innumerable destinies had passed behind those fences.

3rd place @axeman - Axeman's Travelfeed #015 - Caesarea Maritima Part #01 - Behind The Photo Contest Entry

@axeman recalled his visit to the City of Caesarea Maritima, also known as Caesarea Palestinae, not far from Tel-Aviv, Israel. In his post he took us on a very visual walk through history, and also managed to teach us a few things about how to catch those illusive crashing waves of the ocean, through a lens.

The stories behind all the photos were happy, sad, emotional, technical and educational, but above all, interesting. The "story strength" as @manoldonchev put it, was top notch for each of the entries.

(You can also check our First Edition winners' post here, which were no less fantastic: 1st place @wales, 2nd place @axeman, 3rd place @manoldonchev.)

As any other contest, we have rules:

One (1) entry per account.
Your entry can be in the form of writing, photos or even videos.
Text, video(s) and photo(s) must be your own. This will of course be checked, and any form of plagiarism will result in automatic disqualification of your entry and will be reported to steemcleaners.
Multiple photos can all go in one post.
Your entry must be in English. Feel free to use additional languages, but the translation must be equivalent to the English version.
You must use the tag #behindthephoto. It doesn't have to be the first tag, as long as you use it. This way, we, other contestants and interested parties can find your entry easily.
The title of your entry must have the words "Behind The Photo" as a part of it.
Your entry must include a link to this post (for example at the very end of your entry).
If you want to do a collaboration with a friend (like the example we made) that is totally fine. Just don't tell the same story! Be nice and credit each other!
Re-steems of this post are not required, but would of course help, to let others know about the contest.
You do not have to post a link to your entry in a comment below, as we will be checking the tag.
We reserve the right to exclude any entry which we deem to be low-effort. I.e. one-picture entries with a couple of sentences, or a two-minute video will NOT cut it.

Timeline:

This edition of the contest will be active from the moment THIS is posted, and will run for seven (7) days.

As we are constantly trying to make the contest better and run smoother for participants and followers alike, we will not make a second post in seven days to let you know that the contest is closed. We felt that the "Contest Closed"-post wasn't really fulfilling any purpose, and those who will want to participate will be aware of the deadline by looking at the time of this post anyway. (For those of you using Steempeak's front end, we will add a countdown timer to this post.)

Please be aware that late entries will not be considered. After the seven days, we will take a couple of days to decide and announce the winners. Only entries posted after this post and before the 7-day deadline will be valid entries.

Prizes:

1st place: 80 STEEM, 10k SPACO, 2250 PHOTO
2nd place: 50 STEEM, 6k SPACO, 1350 PHOTO
3rd place: 30 STEEM, 4k SPACO, 900 PHOTO

@tarazkp, the winner of 2nd prize from Edition #2, has been so very kind as to donate his 18 STEEM to the prize pool for this edition (they are included above). Thank you very much @tarazkp!

Apart from the prize pool, with a STEEM total of 160(!), there is a possibility that our sponsor @appreciator will upvote some of the good entries. Any such sponsored upvotes are completely at @appreciator's discretion.

Jury: @nelyp and @johan.norberg

Sponsorship: We sincerely thank @appreciator for sponsoring this contest!

So, get creative, tell all your friends, post a link in your discord servers, spread the word and share this contest in any way you think is appropriate. We have created a STEEM account specifically for this contest, so if you like the contest and want to be notified in your feed, you can give @behindthephoto a follow as well. @behindthephoto will re-steem all valid entries, so it's an easy way of following the contest and to find all the entries.