Artist News | LQAF Blog | LQAF News Dec 05, 2013
The La Quinta Arts Foundation presents its first photo contest!
The Blue Hour
“The thing, whatever it was – and no one was ever sure afterwards whether it was a dream or a fit or what – happened at that peculiar hour before dawn when human vitality is at its lowest ebb. The Blue Hour they sometimes call it, l’heure bleue – the ribbon of darkness between the false dawn and the true, always blacker than all the rest of the night has been before it.”
Cornell Woolrich, The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich
What and when is the Blue Hour?
A bit of a misnomer, as it is actually not an hour long – it is the time before sunrise and after sunset, neither full day nor full night, where blue becomes the predominant color hue of the skies and the light that falls onto the earth. It is known for its quality of light, and has long been the object of color photographers who are looking to capture that atmospheric and magical moment. Martin Barnes, a curator of an exhibit in London in 2006 based on twilight
writes “The magic moment of twilight […] is an area of contemporary art where emotion and romanticism still have great currency.”
Dust off your tripods, bring out your cameras and enter the desert land and cityscapes ready to capture the Blue Hour. Just keep in mind, that, when it comes to photographing this particular subject matter, it is all about timing. There is no limit as to what you can photograph (portraits, landscapes, flora, cities, etc) with the exception of the time of day – in this case you have two options.
Here are some examples to whet your appetite by photographer Floris van Breugel who has photographed our nearby desert in the twilight hour extensively.
Photo Contest Image Specifications
LIMIT THREE IMAGES PER ENTRANT.
All images must be in JPEG format, RGB or Grayscale mode, 72ppi. Images and captions may not include watermarks, text, logos, borders or other identifying marks. Color space should be sRGB.
The longer side of your image must be 1200 pixels. The shorter side may be any size up to and including 1200 pixels.
Photo Contest Terms & Conditions
The Fine Print: Please read!
By entering the contest you automatically acknowledge and agree to the following:
- Copyright remains with the photographer. Entry constitutes the photographer’s agreement to allow LQAF to publish the images on their facebook page and websites and to use them in promotions for future contests. Please include any website links or email addresses you wish to appear next to your photo in your entry.
- The first step is to upload your image onto the website, here. From there, the top 24 photographs will be posted on the LQAF’s facebook https://www.facebook.com/LaQuintaArtsFoundation page for the public to view and vote on. The photos prior to appearing on facebook will be judged by a juror experienced in the field of photography. Photos are judged on their originality, quality, impact and adhering to the topic. All decisions made by the judges and contest organizers are final.
- The material content of the photo as documented with the camera may not be changed or altered. Basic processing including, but not limited to color correction, exposure adjustment, spotting, saturation, contrast, and cropping are acceptable. High dynamic range images (HDR) and stitched panoramas are also allowed. Tools that alter the appearance with artistic effects are not acceptable, nor are photo composites of more than one scene.
- Each image must be the work of the person entering it. By submitting a photograph to the LQAF Photo Contest you warrant that you are the copyright holder of the image, that you alone own the copyright, and that you have obtained any necessary property and model releases.
- Limit three (3) images per entrant.
