Money Shot Verdict
We have a winner
Words by Cam McRae. Photos by Money Shot Finalists.
Many riders will just skip past this and head straight to see who has actually won Money Shot 2008. I can't blame them because the suspense has been mounting for some time. We were lucky enough to round up four excellent judges for the final so you can challenge the results but their credibility is impeccable. Sterling Lorence, Ian Hylands, Dan Barham and David Ferguson ranked each of the five finalists to come up with a winner. Three judges agreed on the winner while one saw it differently. That's the beauty and the bane of an event that is based on personal taste. Imagine what a Back Street Boys kind of world we'd live in if everyone saw things the same?
I'd like to thank all the shooters from the world over from digging out their best shots to share with us. Eye-popping images were the order of the day for the entire length of the contest. Thanks also to Kokanee Crankworx for their support of this event as well as Dakine, Syncros and Bear Back Biking who all stepped up big with fantastic prizes. Thanks as well to Norco for providing a 2008 Shore for the winner to ride in the best bike park in the world. And now I'm going to hand it over to the judges to give their take on the five finalists. I have chosen a shot from each shooter to display here but you'll have to go to the finals gallery to see all 25 tidy shots. Remember the judging was based on the gallery of five shots submitted by the finalists rather than just one shot.
Thanks as well to all the photographers who helped out with judging. The credibility they bring is a huge asset for Money Shot.
Cam McRae
A comment on the process from David Ferguson:
Shooting an event like Crankworx can be pretty stressful. If you're there to shoot one or two riders for an assignment, or for your own personal gallery, then you've got some time to set up and test lighting and angles etc. on other riders as they come down. If you're there to shoot all of the riders because you're covering the event for a publication, you don't know who is going to win or what lines many of the riders are going to take, or what sorts of craziness the riders are going to throw down. Your job is to try to capture it all. So bearing this in mind, along with the other judges, I set out to choose one of the 5 finalists as someone I'd feel confident in covering an event like Crankworx.
Dan Barham - rank 1
"Running from the Storm" feels a little over-processed and "Be Quick Or Be Dead" needs a little less flash, but the other three more than make up for it. My favourite is definitely the ultra-wide B&W shot - kudos for getting that great red filter look - it makes me want to dig out my full-frame body again.
David Ferguson - rank 1
Every shot that Jan submitted is fantastic. What more can I say? Great composition with good variety, great colour, good action, tack-sharp. After looking at all of the photog's submissions constantly over a period of 3 days, I kept going back to look at Jan's photos.
Ian Hylands - rank 1
This group was one of my favorites right from the start. I like that there is a B&W shot included, and that it was shot with a filter, either for real or added later. I like the XC shot a lot, the road/trail looks awesome, both how rough it is and the line of it. The color works well too.
Sterling Lorence - rank 2
Composition and action are good but overall impression of the collection is not as stoking as with Josef's. The flash thing gets boring and predictable. Too much flash just simply hitting the subject to
make them ring out LOUD. Why? Flash doesn't make the shot, go further and add to it by shooting more dynamic creative angles and compositions and also more inspiring rider scenarios.
Dan Barham - rank 3 (tie)
Can I give away joint honours? Well I'm going to anyway. I couldn't choose between the two, both are solid sets.
David Ferguson - rank 2
Josef's submissions are all great. It's pretty hard at this point to narrow down who I'm going to vote as the winner. There is good skill with lighting and panning in his photos, and some very creative shots. However, his shots are all quite tight and I'd like to see some wider angle shots as well. Coming back to the notion of covering an event like Crankworx: having a good variety of compositions at the end of the day is important.
Ian Hylands - rank 2
It was a bit of a hard pick for me between Nitro and Dijck for first. I really like a lot of nitro's images, the B&W shot, the race shot, the crash shot, the Red Bull shot... pretty much all of them. But I did notice that they're pretty much all flash lit, and while I'm definitely a big user of flash, I think this portfolio would have benefited from at least one awesome natural light shot.
Sterling Lorence - rank 1
Some eye catching material and good bid at being original with unique perpectives in this diverse sport of ours. Obviously quite savvy in photoshop but i can live with the treatments and they add in some ways. This is the best overall collection that shows talent behind the lens(it's not easy nailing a sharp crash shot) and the best talents that will be required to shoot in the stadium of crankworx for nsmb.
Dan Barham - rank 2
Love the all-natural light and interesting toning, a bit more variety would've put Tyler in the top spot.
David Ferguson - rank 3
Tyler's shots are all really nice, but most of the photos look a little too photoshopped to me. Again, I enjoy the desaturated look, but only once in a while. I'd like to see some of Tyler's shots before colour tweaking. Kudos for some great write-ups for each photo. I also appreciate the effort in doing self-portraits (3 of the 5 submitted were self portraits). However, I'd like to see some photos where Tyler only had 1 chance to produce a banger - this is going to be the situation when shooting at an event like Crankworx.
Ian Hylands - rank 3
While I wasn't quite as impressed with this portfolio as the 1st and 2nd ones, I still really liked what he was trying to accomplish. All natural light, interesting subject, composition could have been maybe a little less straight forward. Really liked ridgeside.jpg... As nitro could have benefitted from a natural light shot, I think Tdiddy could have used flash or a different composition or ??? to benefit the portfolio a little.
Sterling Lorence - rank 3
Solid effort, but the bangers weren't there like they were in previous months. I like the compositions in most shots and like the diversity in riding situations. A little more action in the riding, which will show your talents behind the camera....maybe less fewer self portraits so you can be behind the lens rather that the bars...
Dan Barham - rank 3 (tie)
Like I said above - joint honours. I couldn't choose between Allan and Josef - both are solid sets.
David Ferguson - rank 4
Allan has a good eye for composition in that beautiful Kamloops setting - a lot of very nice scenery and some good use of the light from the low sun. Only two shots he submitted had interesting riding in them, but with a couple of gotcha's - the opposite table nailed by Dylan is obscured behind the stringy branches of the tree, and the sketchy sounding "Road Gap Hip Step Down of Death" was a little bit late with the rider in the centre of the horizontal plane of the photo and on his downward trajectory. It was nice to see a lifestyle shot in Allan's submissions, but I would have liked to have seen more action.
Ian Hylands - rank 4
I liked the mood and feel of these shots, and the portrait was a nice addition. However nothing in this group really stood out to me.
Sterling Lorence - rank 4
I liked most of the shots that you contributed this year, it certainly shows that you are on the right track of photography. But in this finals set, the images look way too forced. Trying to be ultra creative and artsy for the wrong reasons or in siutations that didn't warrant it. The shots with branches across the shot where the rider is, is bad. Why bother? if they were on the image left, ok.
Devan Wyka (aka - devwyka) I feel it should be noted here that Devan never planned to enter Money Shot 2008. He put an image up on his Facebook page and a board member suggested it be entered and did the honours. That shot won the month of April and sent Devan scrambling to learn more about shooting and to get some good shots. With that considered I think he did a fine job. Keep it up Devan! Ed.
Dan Barham - rank 5
Sorry buddy, you were outgunned on this one, nothing that really captures my imagination at all.
David Ferguson - rank 5
Lately I've been seeing a lot of use of blurred foreground objects to create a border for the subject of a photo. This technique works once in a while, but it definitely isn't a magic bullet that one can count on every time. Unfortunately two of Devan's shots use this technique, and I'm not a big fan. However, I really like the desaturated colours in "Roll It Fast", and it has the best composition of Devan's submissions (and some great action! I want to ride that line!). More strong submissions like it would have helped round out his finals portfolio.
Ian Hylands - rank 5
While there were a couple of photos in this group that I looked at a little closer for the most part they didn't inspire me.
Sterling Lorence - rank 5
Need to work on photography basics. Exposures are off and compositions are not dialled. Looks like auto settings in camera are at work here and it has ruined a few shots. Be your own worst critic, and you will rise. Kamloops has a treasure chest of nugs and you find them all over the place up there....
So as you can see below, we now have a winner. Congratulations to Jan Tekel for beating all comers to take the Money Shot 2008 title. Now we have to sort out getting Jan his prize - which involves getting himself to Kokanee Crankworx on assignment. Once he gets here Jan will recieve press access to every event at this year's Kokannee Crankworx at Whistler (which of course includes lift access so you can ride when you have a minute), lodging at Bear Back Biking's sweet chalet, $500 to spend as you like and the use of a 2008 Norco Shore to keep you ripping in the best bike park in the world. Jan will have to get himself to Whistler but once he's here he'll be in good shape to soak it all in.
Jan will be on assignment for nsmb.com at the event, submitting photos to us daily and sharing his vision of Crankworx with the world.
Congratulations to all the finalists! Click here to see the entire finals gallery.
Did the best shooter take home the prize? Make yourself judge and jury here.
| Final results |
Jan Tekel | Josef Mrazek | Tyler Reid | Allan McVicar | Devan Wyka |
| Judge | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Points |
| Dan Barham | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | .5 |
| David Ferguson | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | .5 |
| Ian Hylands | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | .5 |
| Sterling Lorence | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | .5 |
| Avg. Ranks/Total pts. | 1.5 | 17 | 2.00 | 13 | 2.75 | 9 | 3.75 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
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