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[gemgem32]

#moodyviews #thankyouocean #calm #reflection #beach

[thecacoast]

California Ocean and Coastal Amateur Photography Contest Announces  2016 Winners

The winners of the California Ocean & Coastal Amateur Photography Contest have been selected, and out of a pool of 700 photos, the first place Judges' Choice winner is Gary O'Neill.  He won for his close-up picture of crashing waves that he calls, "Ocean's Power."  

He captured the shot using a long camera lens to look back at the waves as he sat on a bluff near the Piedras Blancas Light Station, where he volunteers as a tour guide. Mr. O'Neill is a resident of the San Luis Obispo County community of Los Osos, where he retired with his wife after an agricultural career in the Central Valley, and he is also a member of several local camera clubs.

The first place Viewers' Choice winner, as determined by online voting, is Matt Pfeifer for his picture of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk at night reflected in the mouth of the San Lorenzo River.

Matt Pfeifer has lived in Santa Cruz for 10 years and enjoys his photography hobby when he's not working as a financial broker. Urged on by a friend to enter, he captured this image with a long exposure the night before the contest entries were due. Levees were closed to allow more water to stay in the river, so he was able to photograph the reflection of the lights on the river water in the foreground. 

Another artistic image, "Ocean Sky,"was awarded second place by the judges, and the prize went to Kathy Barnhart, a retired teacher and counselor from Berkeley.

She took her picture looking straight down at Greyhound Rock in Santa Cruz County from the parking lot above it on a winter day. Looking at her pictures later, she realized that in this photo, the sea looked like a landscape of mountains and clouds. Calling photography her "retirement passion," Kathy Barnhart loves outdoor photography as she explores nature.

A close-up of an arm of a sea star earned San Francisco resident Jim Jones third place in our contest. 

He took the picture at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in San Mateo County, a tidepooling hotspot where the big difference between the high and low tides reveals a great diversity of tidepool life.

The fourth-place prize went to Dante Vasco for his dramatic close-up of two terns battling for a fish at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Orange County.

Mr. Vasco is a southern California resident who works at Boeing in Huntington Beach. This picture was one of a sequence he took last summer as he watched birds hover and dive, then tried to snap them as they surfaced from the water. These two birds both got a hold of the same fish, and they grabbed it from each other until one of them finally won.

The judges also awarded 16 honorable mentions-- be sure to check them out along with all of the winners on our contest website.

The California Coastal Commission coordinates this contest together with the Thank You Ocean Campaign and provides financial support from the Whale Tail License Plate Fund. The contest is also sponsored by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts of California, which generously donate the contest prizes.

Please visit http://mycoastalphoto.com next summer to enter this contest next year!