A tribute to the iPhone Photography Awards’ almost winners.

2014 is the seventh year of the IPPAWARDS, a global contest for photographs taken with iPhones. This year’s winners include 54 photographers from 17 countries who competed in 17 categories.

“All images must be taken with an iPhone, iPod or an iPad. The photos should not be altered in Photoshop or any desktop image processing program.” -IPPA Contest Rules

I know many photographers who turn up their noses at pictures taken with phones, and I used to be one of them, but I’m coming around. As a matter of fact, I took my blog’s header picture with my iPhone last year, and I’m quite pleased with how that photo turned out!

The categories include: animals, architecture, children, flowers, food, landscape, lifestyle, nature, news/events, panorama, people, seasons, still life, sunset, travel, trees, and other. Does anyone else find it odd that flowers and trees are separate categories, as are children and people, but the entire animal kingdom is lumped into one? Why not pets and wild animals?

I had a great time browsing the winners, and this post was originally going to be about them, but once I’d drafted it, i realized that every single one of my favorites received only honorable mention. I thought the winning photos were good, but I found myself much more drawn to the also-rans, so I decided to make this a post about them instead. I guess the IPPA judges and I will just have to agree to disagree.

The entry form for the 2015 competition is online already. I might even enter. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get honorable mention!