Risto Raunio, NSMIF/p – Finland
For me, nature has always been an important part of my own world and that is why my photographs are also mainly nature images. Photography has remained a hobby for over 40 years.
I only joined the camera club in my home area (Turun Kamerat) in 2015 with the idea of finding some new perspective on photography. However, I realized pretty quickly that yes, nature photography is still my number one and at the same time my greatest resource.
Nonetheless, a few members of my camera club encouraged me to participate in various photo contests, but it wasn’t until February 2019 that I took action. The results were surprising. During the year 2020, I have achieved SKsLM, NSMIF/b, AFIAP and GPU/CR2 distinctions (as of Nov 2020). There is now a total of 545 FIAP approvals, 42 gold, silver and bronze medals and 36 honourable mentions. Valuable recognitions have also been the bronze and two honourable mentions of the nature photo series in the Finnish Photo Awards 2020 competition, and the gold and silver medal of the nature photo series in the Fotofinlandia 2020 competition.
It has been very encouraging to see that it is also possible for nature images to achieve good rankings, as competition rules limit image processing to a minimum and prohibit image manipulation altogether. That’s why most of my workflows end with the use of Lightroom, and Photoshop has hardly become familiar.
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