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June Photo Contest Finalists: In Your Face! | The Expeditioner Travel Site

June Photo Contest Finalists: In Your Face!

Friday, July 9, 2010

You may or may not remember the landscape and the architecture, but you will never forget a face — even if they are only in pictures.

Last month’s photo theme, “Faces in Places,” has left an impression. There is something fascinating about a picture of a face. It makes the viewer curious about the story behind the character. If we don’t know the story, we are compelled to make one up.

Once we had the finalists, trying to determine a winner was difficult. Each submission had an insightful back story, proving there is always a story behind a face.

Although we came to a consensus about the “Wise Man,” we hummed and hawed over the following pictures as well:

The first mention, titled “Femme peul,” goes out to DorisBA who took this stunning photograph while visiting a Fula village in Senegal. This is a face of the oldest woman in the village who is considered “a Healer, a Teacher, a Guide.” DorisBA had this to say about the experience:

When she saw me taking pictures of the kids and showing them what it looks like, she grabbed my hand and gestured for me to follow her. She entered her hut and sat straight on her bed. I did not need more details to understand that she wanted her picture taken.

After I took her photo, she then leaned forward to have a look of the picture on my camera. At the look of herself, she broadly smiled and laughed and probably thought it was a very funny picture.

Taken with a Panasonic DMC-FH3, DorisBA not only captured the woman’s mischievous essence — Jon’s first instinct was, “[i]t just looks like she’s up to something . . . ” — but an image with impact. As Matt described, “[t]he smile on this woman’s face is unforgettable” and Luke felt that “she will surely be haunting upcoming dreams.” It is a picture with punch.

For more pictures of Senegal and other journeys, check out DorisBA’s Flickr page.

The other finalist was Lachlan Towart’s photograph titled “Waiting for the bus,” snapped with a Canon EOS 50D. As Matt pointed out, “[f]or anyone that has ridden a bus in Central/Latin America, this picture will immediately conjure up fond memories.” Towart has this back story to describe his photo:

I was taking a “chicken bus” to Masaya, it’s about an hour’s bus ride away from Granada (Nicaragua). The bus was starting to fill up but the driver wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere and the two kids at the front were getting bored. As the boy was swinging about on the handrails I managed to snap a few frames unnoticed — the kids weren’t playing to the camera or anything, just trying to entertain themselves.

Personally, what speaks to me about this snapshot is the proof that everywhere, kids will be kids. It’s nice to be reminded that our cultures may differ, but that playful essence is in us all.

You can find more incredible pictures of Nicaragua and other faces in other places on Lachlan Towart’s Flickr.

Congratulations to all. The Flickr group has an outstanding bunch  of excellent photographers. Everyone is making our job at determining finalists a lot harder.

As a reminder, this month’s theme is “Urban Jungles,” so head over to The Expeditioner’s Flickr group and post your picture today to be in the running.

By Brit Weaver

TheExpeditioner

About the Author
britweaver

Toronto born and based, Brit is an avid leisure cyclist, coffee drinker and under-a-tree park-ist. She often finds herself meandering foreign cities looking for street eats to nibble, trees to climb, a patch of grass to sit on, or a small bookstore to sift through. You can find her musing life on her personal blog, TheBubblesAreDead.wordpress.com.

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