CWAS David Malin Awards 2013 [Archive]

iceman

26-02-2013, 05:00 PM

Announcement from John Sarkissian about the 2013 David Malin Awards.

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The Central West Astronomical Society is proud to announce the 2013 CWAS Astrophotography Awards judged by Dr David Malin - the "David Malin Awards".

Entry submissions will be accepted from Monday, 1 April 2013, and will close at mid-night on Saturday, 1 June 2013 (AEST).

The theme for this year's Open Themed Section is "People and Sky". Many photographers include people interacting with the night sky in their photographs, and this special section is intended to encourage the exploration of the emotional and human elements of astronomy. The intention is to encourage people with vision, imagination and creativity, using simple equipment, such as a tripod and ordinary camera, to make attractive images of people interacting with the night sky.

For more information on the competition, the conditions of entry and to access the submissions page, see the following web site:

http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/DMA/

The 2013 CWAS "David Malin Awards" are proudly supported by CSIRO's Astronomy and Space Sciences, Canon Australia and the Powerhouse Museum.

Canon Australia continues to support the awards with the major prize this year being the Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 24-70mm f/2.8L lens.

Regards, John Sarkissian
2013 CWAS "David Malin Awards"
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The PDF has similar news, and the website has more information too.

The open theme of 'people and sky' is going to be very interesting this year, especially with nightscapes being such a popular genre now and so accessible.

I can't wait to see what the talented guys and gals from IceInSpace produce again this year!

iceman

21-05-2013, 06:31 AM

Entries close in just 10 days, so don't forget to enter soon!

You must register before-hand to receive a username/password via email, so don't leave it until the last moment!

Rob_K

21-05-2013, 01:03 PM

Thanks for the reminder Mike. I had an absolute bomb of an idea for this year's awards but work and other factors have conspired to leave me entry-less this year! :sadeyes: All I needed was a week or so with no distractions, to sit down and.... :rolleyes:

Good luck to all those entering, looking forward to seeing the results! :thumbsup:

Cheers -

iceman

27-05-2013, 06:57 AM

Trying to pick just 5 photos for the widefield category is killing me! :)

h0ughy

27-05-2013, 08:27 AM

well if you cant decide then dont enter - gives us mortals a chance, except for all those other aurora images and rocks and stars shots.....:P

iceman

27-05-2013, 08:51 AM

I don't envy the judges this year. The number of 'widefield/nightscape' photographers has exploded over the past year, and the quality of images has improved out of sight too.

And so many comet shots, aurora shots etc.

In any case, I can't wait to see the results from everyone. There's always a few surprises in there.

rustigsmed

27-05-2013, 04:30 PM

I had nearly forgotton about all the comet lemmon shots. I agree, its going to be a rich field!

Can't wait to see the pics :thumbsup:

iceman

27-05-2013, 04:37 PM

Don't forget Panstarrs, and the combined Lemmon Panstarrs!

colinmlegg

28-05-2013, 02:50 PM

Must render my timelapses of those someday... Drowning :(

rogerg

29-05-2013, 09:03 AM

Two minutes is a severe limitation for timelapse. Not saying its unreasonable, but not much fits in 2 minutes! It'd take editing to get any of mine down to that, they're all about 2:30+

colinmlegg

29-05-2013, 01:36 PM

Agreed Roger. I think 3 minutes is a better limit. I prefer longer running astro scenes.

iceman

29-05-2013, 01:44 PM

Perhaps we could propose it to John. Did anyone mention it after last year?

rogerg

29-05-2013, 01:49 PM

This is the first time I've considered submitting timelapse, so didn't encounter it last year.

Good idea to suggest it Mike, but probably only fair to those who have already submitted if it is upped for next year. (as much as I would love it to be 3 this year!)

I gave it a bit of a shot this morning cutting one of mine down, but with the choreography of the music to the pictures/video etc it's just doesn't gel with my creative juices cutting it down, didn't work :) Seems evident now I needed to specifically start one from scratch to be less than 2 minutes, for the awards.

Peter Ward

29-05-2013, 06:17 PM

My cheerful prognostication is Martin Pugh will once again dominate Deep-Sky.
(unless some other seriously-skilled operator has some top-shelf gear on a remote mountain-top :) )

The rest however is going to be tough...with two (!) eclipses, comets and some sublime wide field work in the last 12 months I suspect the finalist images will be of the highest calibre yet to be seen at CWAS.

Good luck to those who have entered!

Octane

29-05-2013, 07:42 PM

I have nothing of note worth entering. :~(

Good luck, all.

H

leon

29-05-2013, 08:24 PM

I'm with you H, good luck to all the members that have contributed.

Leon

alexch

29-05-2013, 08:49 PM

I did consider suggesting to expand the time limit to three or four minutes to John, but instead tried to shorten my pieces to fit into two minutes.

It did take some time to edit but must say I think that 2-miunute clips turned out better than longer versions. From what I have seen online, around 2-minute mark seems to be the "golden" duration to keep the attention span of an average internet viewer.

lacad01

31-05-2013, 09:39 AM

Just stumbled across this article today featuring many great shots from IIS members :thumbsup:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/photos/2013/03/27/3720997.htm

Phil Hart

31-05-2013, 12:50 PM

Can only agree with the comments about videos.. 2 minutes has been tough for me too as I've had to re-edit visuals and music to cut them down. But I also agree with Alex that 2 minutes makes for a short-punchy video and the internet audience does not care for anything much longer.

It prompts the question about the purpose of the category as anything longer than 2 minutes becomes a seriously lengthy video production and hard to compare to animated sequences of other astronomical objects/events which already struggle against the night sky timelapse vids. Tough question.

For info.. if you're struggling to upload large video files you can also contact the organisers (quick!) to send larger file size versions.

Phil

cazza132

01-06-2013, 05:31 PM

I'm trying to cut down my eclipse vid from cairns. Just looses too much of its purpose. Currently runs at 4 min but considering uploading it as is. Would I get disqualified for exceeding the length?

rogerg

01-06-2013, 05:36 PM

The rules state 2 minutes :shrug:

I would hence expect longer would be disqualified.

cazza132

01-06-2013, 05:51 PM

Got it down to 2:52s. Heaps of cross fades sort of heaps

gregbradley

02-06-2013, 01:16 AM

I thought there was a bit of a rule about time lapses that a specific scene only lasts about 12 seconds. Otherwise it seems too long. Have a look at various time lapses and I think that is a pretty good rule. I find myself thinking a scene has gone on too long if its more than about that.

Then linking several together for a 2 minute total would give you 10 scenes.

10 scenes on the same theme is quite a lot. More than that could get boring and lack interest. It would not match modern man's short attention span where if a computer takes more than 2 seconds to load something its way too long.

I myself am new to time lapse but actually have done maybe 30/40 so far. They are fun and they are quite a spectacular form of astrophotography.

I have plenty of material but did not put one in this year as too much time spent on stills. But I'd like to next time. I need better video editing software as the crappy Nikon Movie Editor is a bit of a joke.

I think I would click off even a good time lapse if it were longer than about 2 minutes. Call me shallow but I think a lot of people would and if you are an artist you must consider the viewpoint of your audience.

Greg.

Adelastro1

02-06-2013, 03:52 AM

I agree completely Peter. I've seen some amazing images recently which at times made me think why do I bother! haha. But I have taken some decent ones recently too and entered so we shall see. ;)
I hope everyone is also considering entering the Greenwich Observatory competition which closes on the 13th too.
The 2012 exhibition is currently at the SA Museum and it is presented extremely well, so I can't wait to see it next year with the even higher quality expected images, and hopefully in the same location.

rogerg

02-06-2013, 11:15 AM

I kind of disagree. While I respect they have limitations and the wide white mats are used around the frames to present them in a consistent and artistic manner, etc, I felt the pictures in the exhibition were far too undersized as a whole. I took visitors through the exhibition at Perth Observatory, and watched visitors observing them, and I feel the pictures lacked the wow factor they deserved because of their small size. I think visitors would have been very impressed with them if they were larger pictures so you could be more immersed in them, and see the detail in the picture. :shrug:

Adelastro1

02-06-2013, 07:14 PM

What I meant was that the museum has presented them very well within their display area - the lighting is magnificent, and there's plenty of room around them to move and look from a distance etc. The images in the exhibitions have always been small yes and I agree they would look better bigger but the production costs go through the roof, hence why we now pay $15 for each entry to cover some of it. Two images have been blown up very large for the entrance and they look great as posters, as does Martin Pugh's image as a poster outside the museum right on North Tce.

rogerg

02-06-2013, 07:33 PM

Ahh, excellent :)

Yeap, it's their choice to how to spend the money on the framing/mounting and I wouldn't want to be paying more for each entry either :)

h0ughy

02-06-2013, 11:54 PM

well discussions might be of some thing else now

From: John.Sarkissian@csiro.au [mailto:John.Sarkissian@csiro.au]
Sent: Sunday, 2 June 2013 11:50 PM
Subject: 2013 CWAS "David Malin Awards" submissions have closed

Hello all,

The submissions for the 2013 CWAS "David Malin Awards" competition have now closed.

We received a record number of entries from a record number of entrants – a stunning result!

The entries will now be judged by David Malin over the coming weeks. Those who are judged to receive an award will be notified by email.

The 2013 CWAS AstroFest committee thanks you for participating in this year's competition.

Good luck.

Regards, John Sarkissian
2013 CWAS 'David Malin Awards'

anthony.tony

08-06-2013, 11:05 AM

http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/DMA/ - The CWAS 2013 Astrofest and David Malin Awards are Getting Closer to The Day - Tony

anthony.tony

13-06-2013, 08:44 PM

http://www.cwas.org.au/astrofest/ - Its up the Site for Conference and Dinner Bookings CWAS Astrofest. -- Tony

Adelastro1

14-06-2013, 10:54 PM

Great. I've been looking out for the details!

iceman

15-06-2013, 06:26 PM

Getting close now. Shortlisted finalists will be notified tonight!

Paul Haese

15-06-2013, 08:11 PM

3 Again for me. This year we are not allowed to say which images won awards. Suffice to say I am happy with getting three awards again. Getting some consistency here.

E_ri_k

15-06-2013, 10:39 PM

Got home from work tonight, and to my surprise, an image I submitted was selected for an award :D Certainly didn't see that coming.

gregbradley

15-06-2013, 10:43 PM

I got one also.

Greg.

Peter Ward

16-06-2013, 12:35 AM

Got three :)

h0ughy

16-06-2013, 01:33 AM

congratulations to those that got a email - alas i got none.

iceman

16-06-2013, 07:55 AM

None for me either. Congrats to those selected!

Adelastro1

16-06-2013, 09:10 PM

None for me either! I'm very intrigued to see who else got a gong now! haha. Breaks my run of three years in a row but I know this year there were some extremely good images taken and stiff competition so it's understandable. I'm disappointed I won't be going to the awards ceremony now though as it's always a great night meeting up with everyone!

neilcreek

13-07-2013, 04:01 PM

Hi all :)

Will anyone be in attendance at the awards tonight, and will they be able to possibly make regular updates here or somewhere else? I have been awarded for two entries, but I am unable to attend. It's my first time entering so I'm excited to hear the results :)

Thank you!

Paul Haese

13-07-2013, 07:20 PM

Well done Neil. I will be waiting in Adelaide to see how I went this year. I suspect the same as last year though. :) There are a few that might be able to put something up. I suppose we will have to wait an see.

Paul Haese

13-07-2013, 10:06 PM

Anyone at the ceremony?

iceman

14-07-2013, 08:48 AM

Well done those who were honoured with awards or places.

Paul Haese

14-07-2013, 08:59 AM

Congrats to Martin for the overall win. Well done. The competition images look great on the dedicated site. Some really lovely images this year. Lucky to have got what I did when looking at all the images.

anthony.tony

14-07-2013, 10:04 AM

Anyone got any photos of the Event To post - Tony

mithrandir

14-07-2013, 12:37 PM

Today's Sun Herald has a few of the images. There are more on the SMH iPad app version and on smh.com.au (http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/national/david-malin-awards-2013-20130711-2ps30.html) but I think you might have to subscribe for both of those to see them.

Peter Ward

14-07-2013, 05:34 PM

Just got back from Parkes.

Once again, congrats to the winners! (...and HM's :) )

Martin's NGC3718 was truly superb, and well deserving of the overall prize.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

What was was interesting was the variation an innovation in this year's submissions. Some truly beautiful imagery was showcased by DSLR users.

Also a heartfelt thanks to John Sarkissian who's efforts always seem to go above an beyond the call !

John, now in need of a well earned break, indicated CWAS he will be "mixing things up" with categories etc. next year, in an effort to make the "Malins"
well and truly a world class Astrophotography event.

Paul Haese

14-07-2013, 05:54 PM

We certainly need some clarification on what constitutes hi res. I had a lengthy discussion with John about a month before the competition closed about what should constitute hi res imaging. We both agreed that imaging the planets or just a sunspot or a lunar crater would constitute a hi res image. Where we differed was when it came to mosaics. He was thinking that if you joined panels of images together and made an image of the sun or the moon it would be considered wide field as this made an image of 30' plus. My argument was if you have to use mosaic panels it should be considered as hi res as each panel is less than 30'. It was left in the air this time, but some clarification would be good.

I wonder how they will make it world class? Does this mean they will open it to the rest of the world?

Peter Ward

14-07-2013, 06:04 PM

I think what he was meaning was the promotion and subsequent coverage (eg. TV, Newspapers, radio) of the event, to be more in line with the ROG APOTY (their budget currently dwarfs CWAS)

However, I understood it will still very much be an all Aussie affair.

Martin Pugh

14-07-2013, 06:45 PM

Hi folks and thanks.

Well done to all those who were placed in this year's competition and I have to say that the images as shown in the exhibition this morning were beautifully reproduced in print form.

It is certainly most gratifying to win the Malin's for a second time and I can tell you that I am drooling over the 5D MK III this evening - what a magnificent prize - thanks to Canon and Alan Brightman.

Good luck for next year.

Cheers
Martin

CapturingTheNight

14-07-2013, 07:29 PM

Just arrived back home from my first trip to Astrofest and the David Malin Awards. John and all the team at the CWAS put on a very well run event. It was great to meet and put some faces to familiar names in the astrophotography community. A huge congratulations to Martin in taking out the top prize for your exceptional image, and an equally huge congratulations to the other winners and honorable mentions. I am incredibly humbled and honored to have been awarded the "Wide Field" category and to have received an HM in the themed section. All of the images look brilliant in print form at the exhibition. I hope everyone gets a chance to view it as it travels around the country over the year.

E_ri_k

14-07-2013, 08:42 PM

Just returned back home to Victoria, after attending the awards on Saturday night. It was great to meet some fellow members, and put some faces to names:)

Congratulations to all the award winners! There were some fantastic images entered. I was surprised and honoured to receive a HM for one of my images. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the exhibition during the morning, but I hear it went well.

Will definitely be trying to get back next year. It was a great night!

Erik

strongmanmike

14-07-2013, 08:43 PM

Congratulations (again) Martin, you are certainly the Roger Federer of astroimaging...at the moment :) except, unlike Tennis, you don't have to retire :scared:

Mike

jase

14-07-2013, 08:49 PM

Congratulations Martin. Simply stunning image. Well deserved indeed.

The competition is a tough medium with such excellent images presented each year. The standard just gets higher and higher. Those who obtain honourable mentions should be extremely pleased with the recognition. Its no small feat. Well done to all the entrants for making the effort and equally to the competition organisers and generous sponsors. The Malins remain the premier Australian astro imaging platform showcasing the best of the best.