Honorable Mention / 2020 / Nature / Sky

The Gateway to Hell II

I returned to the scene after four years to continue shooting of the chapel under the night starry sky. Comparing to 2016, I went for more complicated panorama including the entire arc of the Milky Way.

Panorama compiled from total of 39 frames (18 averaged exposures of stars in one row, 21 averaged exposures of landscape in the second row, 2-level focus bracketing).

Jan Šmíd is exclusively a landscape photographer with a special focus on panoramic photography, For his work, he uses modern photography methods like exposure bracketing, antireflex, focus bracketing, parallactic mount, etc. He has been organizing photography workshops for seven years; he organizes photo expeditions and runs an Individual Photography School.

He is the author of the Photography Wine Harvest concept, where he combines photography in South Moravia and Tuscany together with explaining and tasting great wines.

Jan got the MASTER QEP certification in summer 2018.

Awards Jan has received more than 200 medals/awards from international photography contests. He values medals from Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, Moscow, London, Melbourne, Budapest, Vienna...