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Image banner for the February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month Winner Art Ibewuike, with a featured image of his winning photo titled "Living Room or Family Room""

Congratulations to Art Ibewuike, February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Living Room or Family Room". Art Ibewuike - #895 Paul-Dan Dragoman - #898 Peter Wingfield - #900 Here's what Art has to say: Thank you so much for ...

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Congratulations Tony Colangelo, Victoria, BC - June PFRE Photographer of The Month

In: 
Published: 24/06/2015

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2015 June Tony ColangeloCongratulations to Tony Colangelo, Victoria, BC, Canada.  Another close competition again this month with a 3 way tie for 2nd place.

We had some discussion about how this theme (large interior adjoined space) is a bit fuzzy as to what it really means. Matthew Stallone and others took exception to whether Tony's image is a fit for the theme. Next June, I'll either refine the definition or come up with a completely different theme.

This is Tony's third win. He won in June 2014 (for the same theme) and August 2013.

Here are the results of the jury voting:

  1. 25 pts, #19, Tony Colangelo - Victoria BC, Canada
  2. 10 pts, #12, Dennis Frost - Nanaimo, BC, Canada, 10 pts, #28, Adrian Jones - Clifton, Cape Town, South Africa, 10 pts, #29, Brian Doherty - Boston, MA
  3. 5 pts, #10, Alasdair McItosh - York, UK, 5 pts, #11, Robert Morning - Los Angeles, California, 5 pts, #21, Seth Parker - Huntsville, Alabama
  4. 3 pts, #13, Hamish Beeston - Bristol, UK, 3 pts, #18, David Lane - Miami, Florida
  5. 2 pts, #3, Thom Neese -  Omaha, Nebraska, 2 pts, #17, Ryan Wicks - Kent, England

Here are Tony's comments:

Despite the fact that this will likely go down as one of the more controversial results for these contests, I'm grateful for all the feedback and for those who kindly voted for my image! Of course, many thanks to Larry for overseeing and maintaining the PFRE site and all the rich resources found therein! I'd also like to thank Brandon Cooper, who took time out from his extremely busy and ever-growing photography business in Fort McMurray, Alberta, to fly out to Victoria to assist on this shoot. It ended up being the most challenging shoot of my career and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to complete it without his support … thanks Brandon!

Given the apparent dissent in many of the comments related to this shot, I’d like to offer my two-cents on why I purposefully selected this image and why I think it fits the bill for this month’s contest theme. I’ve had the good fortune of working with a number of high-end architects/builders and interior designers here in Victoria, many of whom love to put forth “open concept” spaces in their work. In my chats with them about their vision in this regard, I’ve always marveled at their ability to see and put forth a space that demands the interplay between the various design elements and the strategic placement of furniture in order to create the "adjoined" nature of the space. If this contest required walls and doorways to define “adjoined”, then open concept homes (which by their very nature would represent the largest interiors that I typically shoot) would not qualify for this contest - and I think that this would be a shame, particularly when a significant number of entries this month (including one of the second place finishers) captured ‘open-space’ rooms/living spaces. I’m not quite sure how one could look at these images and not be able to distinguish dining rooms or kitchens or sitting areas or livings rooms, etc., nor the inter-connectedness and continuity between them, despite the lack of walls or other partitions. Anyway, I’m assuming that as strongly as I feel about this point, there are those who feel just as strongly for the opposite view; and that’s OK as part of the beauty of this community and these contests, is in the back-and-forth between differing opinions. Indeed, it's in that space where new ideas can be found that I can take to the next photoshoot to see if they work! 🙂

As for this image, it’s a straight ambient exposure, shot with a Canon 6D at f/10, with a shutter speed of 1/30th, with my 17-40 lens set at 36mm. Processed in ACR, PS (for various adjustment layers + to add a color blend layer re the wall at the far right + remove all light switches) and Nik plug-ins for slight contrast enhancement.

PFRE Photographer of the Month Winners:

Larry Lohrman

21 comments on “Congratulations Tony Colangelo, Victoria, BC - June PFRE Photographer of The Month”

  1. It was great to see Tony win this month's contest. Not only does his photography shine, he is such a positive contributor to this forum. He is always constructive, polite and tactful, and above all enlightening. I always look forward to his critiques. Thanks Tony and congratulations!

  2. Congratulations Tony! Well deserved for the outstanding work and a very beautiful image. As I once said, i´m really happy in the "artistic" and in the personal way for your contributions and comments in the PFRE flickr photo/forum.

  3. Congrats Tony! I knew when this photo was uploaded it was the winner...He is the Mike Tyson of this category.

  4. Winning photo is such an amazingly composed photograph. I am not quite sure what the controversy is. Tony took an open space an made it look incredible.

  5. Congrats Tony! This was such a beautiful home. There was so much to look at in this space and with endless compositional options I find it incredible that you were able to capture the feel of the ENTIRE floor in a single one point. It was bold, and it paid off. Congrats again.

  6. Thank you all for your very kind a gracious remarks/compliments ... I'm very pleased that you liked the image! A special thanks to David & Walt for mentioning personal attributes, as well -- that means a LOT to me!

  7. It is a great picture but not what I would consider "large interior adjoined space"! A discussion on this category and what it is about would be helpful. For me, I always considered it about two or more rooms separated by doorways/arches and to be about the skill in lighting each area.

  8. Hello everyone,
    First comment for me. I have been following this site for awhile now. Tony did a great job on this photo. I am new to real estate photography. I am curious on how the points are scored . What are the exact details are you looking at for points. This site is so awesome, I'm learning a lot.
    Steve Jantz

  9. @Steve - Each juror has 10 points to cast and they can cast them all for one entry or up to as many as three entries. There are 37 jurors since each monthly winner is invited to become a juror. Since we've been running this contest since 2008, with a break of a year or so, not all jurors vote any more. The number jurors voting each month varies depending on how busy everyone is... it varies from 8, this month to 13 or 15 in the winter months. There are no other rules other than that. How each juror votes is completely up to them. Over the last several years the quality of the winning images has increased a lot. It's not a perfect system as we saw this month. It doesn't work as well if only a few jurors vote but when 13 or so jurors vote it works quite well.

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