JULIO LUCAS

Bradenton, FL United States
1st Place – 2014 Photographer of the Year

Have you ever considered going seriously into photography however believe that you need an expensive camera to be able to compete? The new generation of smartphones gives anyone the opportunity to capture powerful images very easy and quickly. We believe that the following pictures, will inspire you through their beauty and simplicity. Keep in mind that they were taken with an iPhone, iPod or an iPad. Some of them have been edited trough iOS apps such as Hipstamatic, Instagram or Camera Bag, but not with a professional desktop software like Photoshop.

If they could do it there should be no excuse for the rest of us not to capture insane snapshots that drive the DSLR manufacturers crazy. Keep in mind that since its unveiling in 2007, when Apple redefined what a phone could be, hundred of million devices have been sold.

Among the winners of this Photography Awards, now at the seventh edition, there are some gorgeous examples of the right moment what can result when human ingenuity and favorable circumstances harmonize in a photo: fascinating architecture, wonderful landscape, unique wildlife and mysterious portraits to produce a splendid selection. This concept has been celebrating the creativity of the iPhone users since the first iPhone has inspired, excited and engaged the users worldwide.

The winners of the annual iPhone Photography Awards have been revealed across seventeen different categories. The grand prize winner was Julio Lucas from Florida, who took home first prize with his shot of a man walking across the surface of a glacier.

"I enjoy taking photos with my iPhone due its portability and ease of use while on the move. iPhone’s naturally tend to saturate colors in the captured image. Which depending on the environmental lighting, the saturation of colors normally allows for a bold beautiful image. I generally try to stay away from using filters in my iPhone pictures. I want my photos to take on a more traditional form and grant the capture moment to tell the story rather than a manipulation of the moment by use of too many filters. " Julio Lucas.

For this year competition more than fifty iphone photographers from 17 countries won awards for their submissions in different categories: Animals, Architecture, Children, Flowers, Food, Landscape, Lifestyle, Nature, News/Events, Others, People, Seasons, Still Life, Sunset, Travel and Trees. You will find the winning photographs below.

iPhoneography, is defined according to Wikipedia as the art of creating photos with an Apple iPhone. This is a style of mobile photography that differs from all other forms of digital photography in that images are both shot and processed on the iOS device. Whether a photo is edited using different graphics applications is an argument among iPhone photographers. Iphoneographers often use accessories like lens systems, polarized filters and tripod mounts for increased quality.

Kenan Aktülün the founder of the competition launched in 2007, noted in an mobilephotography.de that "the iPhone had changed photography. The way images were taken was diverse and more spontaneous. The iPhone was used in a different way for photography than classical cameras or digital compact cameras. Excited by this discovery, Aktülün wanted to encourage the users of the iPhone to take more pictures with it and thus founded the IPPAWARDS."

Stock photography giants have started to consider smartphone pictures and even specialized one like Foap market and Twenty20 emerged to empower the emerging photographers. These trend has created for sure a lot hype, but also new artists, like Ali Jardine that switched from stay-at-home mom, to full-time Instagrammer with more than half million followers.

Think you've got a shot at winning next year? Submit your photos at the awards' official website, and demonstrate that you can be next "iPhone Photographer of the Year".