Honorable Mention
Fleur De Sel
DESCRIPTION
Fleur de sel ("flower of salt" in French) it's made drawing seawater into artificial salt pans and allowing the water to evaporate. While most of the salt gets on the bottom of the pan (and is later collected as ordinary sea salt), some salt crystals float on the surface of the water, forming a delicate crust of intricate pyramidal crystals, the fleur de sel. Due to variable algae and bacteria concentrations, vivid colors (from pale green to bright red) are created in the evaporation ponds (Spain, May 2018). AUTHOR
Placido Faranda is an award-winning and worldwide published aerial photographer whose style reflects a constant quest for new landscape colors and contrasts. Placido has been passionate about photography for over 10 years, combining DSLR and mirrorless camera technology to shoot travel and street photography.Since 2016 he’s focused exclusively on drone photography, with a very distinctive top-down style that’s gained international attention on social media (TOP 50 aerial photographer of 2016 on Instagram’s @FROMWHEREIDRONE, an authority on aerial photography)
In 2017, his picture “Lady in Red” was a finalist at the Sony World Photography Awards (travel category), placing it in the top 10 of 105,692 images entered from 182 countries. The same picture was also included in the World Photography Organization’s Sony Awards Traveling Exhibitions in London, Milan, Paris and Berlin.
Another of his pictures, "Solidified Lava vs Forest" was awarded second place at the 2017 PX3, Prix de la Photographie Paris (landscape category). "Solidified Lava vs Forest" gained further worldwide exposure after being featured on National Geographic’s homepage as the “Picture of the day” in the United States, China, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Brazil and Portugal. In October 2017 the picture was awarded second place at the IPA (International Photography Awards) and chosen by the awards’ curator for the "IPA Best of Show" exhibition in New York. In November 2017 "Solidified Lava vs Forest" was awarded 1st place at ND awards 2017 and chosen over 6849 entries from 89 countries.
In 2018, for the second year in a row, his picture "The Big Meringue" is finalist at the Sony World Photography Awards (Landscape and Nature category) placing it in the top 10 of 129,338 images entered from 183 countries. In June 2018 the same picture was awarded Winner of "San Francisco Bay International Photo Show 2018".