David Malin Awards - Finalists

[gregbradley]

Congrats Andy and the other winners as well. I did admire Troys Milky Way image. Its sensational so I understand his image taking out the overall win.

Greg.

[jase (Jason)]

Welcome to the Malin club Troy! Your milky way shot is nothing short of inspirational. Congratulations to the other winners and honorable mentions awarded. Just to be recognized amongst the hundreds of other entrants is remarkable and hearing the wise words of Dr Malin's citation is gold. The quality of Australian astro imaging continues to rise year on year and is without doubt up there with the worlds best.

[RickS (Rick)]

Congrats, guys!

[Paul Haese]

A big congrats Andy and the other winners. I thought you might pick up the win on the DSO section. Your star colours on that shot are essentially perfect and David likes that yellow and blue colour scheme as he has awarded Martin Pugh the win for a similar colour palette.

A special congratulations to Troy for the overall win. As an overall winner myself I know what that feeling is like. I found it hard to believe and I am sure you feel the same.

[Rob_K]

Congratulations everyone! Sorry I couldn't make it to the Awards this year, would have been nice catching up.

Cheers -

[dylan_odonnell (Dylan)]

Woohoo I slipped in with a "Highly Commended"

If I'd known I would have come down!

Congratulations all !


HM = Honorable Mention, HC=Highly Commended.



Overall Winner = Troy Casswell - "Stellar Riches" - (from Wide-Field)
------------------

The Photo Editor's Choice overall winner = James Garlick - "Aurora Treescape" (from Nightscapes)


Junior
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Winner = Matthew Cherubino - "Stairway to Heaven"

HM = Scott Carnie-Bronca - "Tarantula Nebula"

HC = Scott Carnie-Bronca - "Around the Southern Cross"
HC = Erin Carnie-Bronca - "Emu in the Sky"

Photo Editor's Pick = Scott Carnie-Bronca - "Around the Southern Cross"


Deep Sky
------------
Winner = Andrew Campbell - "The Fighting Dragons of Ara"

HM = Andrew Campbell - "A Cosmic Bubble"
HM = Marcus Davies - "Oasis"
HM = Paul Haese - "The Halo"
HM = Steven Mohr - "The Mighty Cosmic Web"

HC = Steven Mohr - "The Southern Seagul Nebula in the LMC"
HC = David Fitz-Henry - "The Helix Nebula"
HC = Paul Haese - "Fox in the Mist, IC 2944 and district"
HC = Greg Bradley - "Southern Nebula, NGC 6188"

Photo Editor's Pick = Peter Ward - "Knight's Colours"


Wide-Field
--------------
Winner = Troy Casswell - "Stellar Riches"

HM = Phil Hart - "Dusty Surrounds of the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae"
HM = Robert Kaufman - "Starlight – spectral changes of N Sgr 2015 No. 2 through maximum"
HM = Kevin Diletti - "Star Storm Around the Teapot"

HC = Greg Bradley - "The Milky Way"
HC = Greg Priestley - "Hunstman Dark Nebula"
HC = Steven Saffi - "Airglow over Kangaroo Island"

Photo Editor's Pick = Arwen Dyer - "Luna Eclipse"


Solar System
-----------------
Winner = Peter Ward - "Solar Crown"

HM = Steven Saffi - "Earth Umbra"
HM = Phil Hart - "Tainted Eclipse, 8 October 2014"
HM = Phil Hart - "Comet Lovejoy's Photogenic Tail, 29 December 2014"

HC = Paul Haese - "Comet Lovejoy"
HC = Ross Giakoumatos - "Comet C/2014 Q2 from ANSW Wiruna"
HC = Craig Semple - "Comet Lovejoy, 11 january 2015"
HC = Phil Hart - "Colourful Comet Lovejoy, 27 December 2014"
HC = Dylan O'Donnell - "Earthshine / Sunshine"

Photo Editor's Pick = Phil Hart - "Entering Earth's Shadow"


Nightscapes
----------------
Winner = James Garlick - "Aurora Treescape"

HM = Judith Conning - "Bridge to Glory"
HM = James Garlick - "Milky Bioluminescence"
HM = Steven Saffi - "Milky Way over the Bungle Bungles"
HM = Stefan Buda - "Southbank Eclipse"

HC = Greg Gibbs - "Bad Moon on the Rise"
HC = Paul Litchen - "Blood Moon over Melbourne Docklands"
HC = Matt Palmer - "Aurora and Moon, Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland"
HC = Wes Schulstad - "Watching Stars at Dawn"

Photo Editor's Pick = James Garlick - "Aurora Treescape"


Theme - "The Southern Cross"
---------------------------------------
Winner = Phil Hart - "South along Bucklands Lane"

HM = Troy Casswell - "Jewels of the Southern Cross"
HM = Peter Patonai - "Vivid Festival Southern Cross"
HM = Saeed Salimpour - "By the Lake"
HM = Mark Slater - "Southern Cross Burning"

HC = Peter Ward - "Crossing the Storm"

Photo Editor's Pick = Peter Patonai - "Vivid Festival Southern Cross"


Animated Sequences – Scientific
------------------------------------------
Winner = Phil Hart - "Four Nights of Comet Lovejoy's Tail"

HM = Alex Cherney - "Dynamic Tail of Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy"
HM = Andrew Cool - "Airglow Waves at Solar Maximum"


Animated Sequences – Aesthetic
------------------------------------------
Winner = Alex Cherney - "Turn"

HM = Greg Priestley - "Point Perpendicular"
HM = Greg Priestley - "Riverina Skies"
HM = Judith Conning - "Aurora Borealis"

HC = Colin Legg - "Crazy Airglow"
HC = Glenn Martin - "The Cottage Time-lapse"

[cazza132 (Troy Casswell)]

Still buzzing and coming to terms with "Stellar Riches" being the overall winner.

A special thanks to the organizers at CWAS, the legendary David Malin and Canon Australia for putting up some outstanding prizes. Congrats to all the other award winners. All the finalists had great images. James Garlick and Andrew Campbell had really strong images that I think could have won it.

It was a long drive down to Parkes but a drive well worth it! Thank u Bubski (my partner in crime) for being there with me and sharing the driving.

It was very good to meet some of the IIS crew at Parkes. Would have liked to have spent more time there and have a few beers and yarns you guys. Hopefully that will happen next year.

Here is a larger and colour corrected version:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130830...posted-public/

[iceman (Mike)]

Very beautiful, Troy!
Congrats and well done to all the Winners, HM's and finalists too!

[rat156]

Well done to all. They are all great shots.

Cheers
Stuart

[Peter Ward]

I'm very happy to echo my congrats to Troy for his overall win.

While I've had my fair share of success and failures since the very first "Malin" it's been very gratifying to see this contest bloom into a showcase of excellence in Astro-imaging over the last 12 years.

I've talked with David many times over the years and am continually amazed by his quantitative knowledge of a multitude of celestial objects and their intrinsic structure & colours....e.g. getting a little colour bias here or there is not fatal to an entry, but processing an object to look blue, when it is really red, or making it look dark when it's bright or bright neon when it should be a pastel will see an entry culled fairly quickly.

I suspect mother nature's vistas, when skillfully captured, are both beautiful and surprising enough without any need to tart-up an image like the covergirl of some glossy magazine.

Some don't like this pragmatic approach.

All I can say is if you don't like it, don't make snide remarks afterwards and don't enter next time.

In 2015 there were nearly 4x more entries than its inaugural year. Around 200,000 people will see the travelling exhibition. Wow.

Given the stratospheric level of so many entries, I suspect now is the time to start working (well, for me at least) on the 2016 comp

[jase (Jason)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

I've talked with David many times over the years and am continually amazed by his quantitative knowledge of a multitude of celestial objects and their intrinsic structure & colours....e.g. getting a little colour bias here or there is not fatal to an entry, but processing an object to look blue, when it is really red, or making it look dark when it's bright or bright neon when it should be a pastel will see an entry culled fairly quickly.

I suspect mother nature's vistas, when skillfully captured, are both beautiful and surprising enough without any need to tart-up an image like the covergirl of some glossy magazine.

Some don't like this pragmatic approach.

Rather insightful (and subjective) Peter. Are you on the judging panel? A post back in 2011, you mention that in future David will be calling for input from others. You would make a prime candidate.

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

I've talked with David many times over the years and am continually amazed by his quantitative knowledge of a multitude of celestial objects and their intrinsic structure & colours....e.g. getting a little colour bias here or there is not fatal to an entry, but processing an object to look blue, when it is really red, or making it look dark when it's bright or bright neon when it should be a pastel will see an entry culled fairly quickly.

Pretty much how David has expressed things with me. When I took the time to ask him a few pointed questions, I found his answers quite enlightening.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

I was lucky enough to have a quiet chat with Dr. Malin last weekend about what he looks for in an award winning image.

In the interests of fair play and giving back some of what I've learned from everyone here, I'll share his remarks.

He said first and foremost it has to have aesthetic appeal.
After that then the technical details come into play, star colours, natural look etc.
Above all the author must respect the light, ie: it must be seen to emanate from the light source.

Takes him a full week to judge the awards.
By his own admission, it's highly subjective!

I found him to be insightful, pleasant and very generous with his time and knowledge. Was a priviledge to have met him

Better start planning next years' entries!

Cheers
Andy

[rbronca]

This was my first time at CWAS Astrofest, so can provide an outsiders opinion here.

I can concur that it is no secret what David is looking for. My son and daughters images were critiqued in detail along with many others on the night during his presentation. That was worth the long trip in itself.

Many mental notes were taken by a lot of people.

We also spoke with David the next morning and were a little taken aback that others were critical of his feedback. Our thoughts were that this critique was exactly what entrants needed to improve.

I believe the whole presentation was videoed and would provide a wonderful resource for future entrants if it could be made public.

Troy's image was a worthy winner when you looked up close at it. The online copy doesn't do it justice.

On a final note, I wish to thank Paul, John and the rest of their society for a creating a well run weekend. The excellent lectures were also a highlight.

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by jase

Rather insightful (and subjective) Peter. Are you on the judging panel? A post back in 2011, you mention that in future David will be calling for input from others. You would make a prime candidate.

I was in fact a judge with Steve Quirk for the very first CWAS comp...hence neither of us could enter that year. Steve and I vetted the entries, but in the end David went through the whole lot again making our efforts somewhat redundant....

David has taken the reigns ever since but, given the time and effort it now requires, I would not be surprised if more than one set of eyes were asked for an opinion in the future.