The winning photographs of this year’s competition “Outdoor Photo of the Year 2018” have been revealed!
You can review the winning images on this website:
https://www.opoty.co.uk/
When admiring the winning or commended photographs, we noticed how some of them created ‘fragrant images’ for us here at Pairfum and we wanted to share some of these ‘olfactive photos’ with you.
Protea Banks, KwaZulu
The image above was taken in Protea Banks, KwaZulu – Natal, South Africa by Pier Many (photographer) and he said this about his image:
“Protea Banks is an underwater reef on the east coast of South Africa that is under consideration for protected area status. Amazing creatures such as this cephea (or crown) jellyfish live there. It was the biggest jellyfish I’ve ever seen, over one metre in diameter. Its purple head and yellow fuselage were simply amazing. With no background objects present to provide perspective, and wishing to exalt this crown jellyfish with its stunning colours, majestic size and dancing elegance, I opted to purposefully crop the jellyfish to fill the frame.”
For us this image created the vivid fragrance of the sea, with its aquatic & salty nuances, its marine minearals, the notes of sea weed and algae. We regularly incorporate these elements in our notes and we particularly liked about this image that marine notes are frequently only displayed a ‘blue’ images whereas this image is displays the most vivid colours.
Namib Desert, Namibia
Here are the comments of Tom Putt (the photographer) about his marvellous photo:
“Flying low over the endless sand dunes of the Namib Desert, I noticed the cloud cover provided this interesting play of light on the landscape. When the sun heats up the dunes, it draws the black minerals to the surface. When I came to process the image, the stunning colours revealed themselves.”
We believe this image perfectly captures the essence of ‘oriental notes’, their warmth & richness, the depth of their accord and sensuous nature.
Storvatnet, Flakstadøya, Lofoten, Norway
This is what Daniel Laan, the photographer says about his image:
“Stjerntinden is a sheer-walled 930m peak rising from the often frozen and snow-covered Storvatnet lake. Along its shoreline the ice is punctured by unyielding rocks, which create tiny ice caves. I decided to put my camera inside this particular one because its curvy roof and virgin snow complemented the inhospitable background so well. However, therein lay the main challenge. I put the camera in from the front, facing out, but had no idea of the composition. I carefully turned the focus ring each shot with a view to making a final focus stacked image. I then lifted the camera for the final frame to reveal more of the mountain and fill the entirety of the cave mouth.”
It conjures up the salty but beautiful fresh, clean ozonic note of ice and outdoor ions.
Does Ice have a fragrance? We believe so and wrote about it in this article:
https://www.pairfum.com/does-ice-have-a-smell/
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, USA
The comments of Alex Palmer (photographer)
“Two climbers approach El Cap Tower on the The Nose route on El Capitan. I was taking a day off from the route that my partner and I were attempting on the West Face of El Capitan. We headed down to the meadow opposite the peak to watch the climbers on the wall and get some images. The hardest thing I’ve found about photographing this rock face is to get any idea of how vast it really is. I spotted two climbers* approaching the El Cap Tower feature and just started to snap photos. When I zoomed in to preview the images, I was really pleased with the scale and atmosphere they showed.”
Do stones have a scent? Have you ever taken the time to smell one?
Try it and you will be surprised by the variety of fragrances that you pick up. The sheer cliff face certainly triggered a memory of an earthy, sun-bleached rock face for us.
Grand Union Canal, Olton, Solihull, England
Chris Fletcher said this about his photo:”This shot was taken handheld using the diffused sunrise light to soften the subject and surrounding woodland. This helped to bring out the colour of the autumn leaves and of the boat. I regularly explore the canal network in the West Midlands and in autumn the atmosphere and colour of the waterways offer fantastic scenes to capture. The composition was made easy by the diagonal positioning of the canal and towpath, which gave me a natural rule of thirds image.”
Here in Europe and London in particular, this image conjures up the memories of moist woody notes from walks in the forest in Autumn. Add to this watery, green notes of the canal and you can see how this images creates a beautifully complex note.
Wyming Brook, Peak District, England
Jay Birmingham about his shot:
“I had gone to Wyming Brook in the Peak District to try to capture some landscape shots. Struggling to find any unique angles, I cast my eyes over the smaller features around me and spotted, in the middle of the water, a small mossy island with a solitary bonnet mushroom growing on it. Even better, there was a small waterfall just behind. I crouched as low down in the water as I could to position the mushroom in front of the waterfall, and then used a neutral density filter to capture the path of the water swirling through this beautiful micro landscape.”
“Oakmoss” is also known as ‘Mousse de Chene’ or ‘Treemoss’. For many people this terms does not trigger an olfactive memory and yet it is a very prominent ingredient in perfumery, such as “Mitsouko” by Guerlain, its role within the ‘Chypre Accord’ or its presence within the ‘Fougère’ Olfactive Group,
For us the image below captures the note of Oakmoss wonderfully: earthy rich, inky bitter, evocative of a sensually damp but woody oak forest, with hints of musky and amber.
Do you find that photos have the power to create ‘olfactive images’ for you? Which images are the most potent for you?
