Ten great images, but just one winner

The winner of our Spring photography competition with the theme of 'People' comes from Norway

See all the entries to this competition.

Competition judge, Barry Lategan (left) with Ian Burley, Four Thirds User editor, showing off the winning picture by Boerge at Lategan's London studio, with one of Lategan's iconic images of Twiggy in the background.

At long last, the winner of our Spring photographic competition, kindly sponsored by Olympus UK, can be revealed. The responsibility for choosing the one overall winner fell to famed professional photographer and long time Olympus devotee, Barry Lategan. Back in June we unveiled the top ten entries as voted by you as a Four Thirds User or Olympus UK E-System User Group forum member. I'm delighted to report that Barry felt all the images in the top ten were of a very high quality. Here is a reminder of those entries:

The veil and the flesh by deevee	Rain, Rain, Go Away. by Bandy
Crossing the river by comeyer	Joy of photography by poisonnr
My Beautiful Niece by akrab	Life is a wheel that can change our destiny by theMusicMan
Woman at the Durbar by Mamanger	Meditation by bol
Unstopable! by Capa12	Shower Accident by narloke

And the winner is... Boerge Olsen (bol), who hails from Norway! Here is his picture:

Barry did suspect that the picture was a montage, but he felt that wasn't a negative point. In fact, Boerge tells us that it definitely is a single image, which makes it all the more impressive. The angle and view really imparts a sense of altitude. Also, if you were wondering, the girl seemingly perched on the edge of a big drop is Boerge's girlfriend.

Of the picture, Barry explained: "My choice of the selected photograph embodies the combination of "looking and seeing". We see someone encapsulated with the modern photographic technique of "digital" looking at the world around us and the photo makes me wonder what was the subject seeing and the photographer's witnessing is beautifully conveyed with Olympus."

Boerge took the picture using an Olympus E-510, which he had recently bought. The image is compelling because of the view in the background, as much as the subject in the foreground. Boerge explains: "The photo in the contest was taken during the first week with the camera on a trip to my hometown with my girlfriend (in the photo) showing her the fantastic scenery. I have walked and climbed a lot in the area over the years, but sadly never before with a camera. I spotted the place on the decent and persuaded her to get out on the rock. The situation was safe, but the height is quite frightening. The picture is as taken with minor tweaks of the raw file. Many would probably prefer a regular silhouette picture. I tried it at first and didn't like the result without the look on her face, and it really made the picture look like cut and paste."

A recent convert to photography, Boerge born in Tromø, Norway and now lives in Oslo working as a doctor mainly treating injuries." Boerge adds: "I bought my first camera only two years ago, Canon S80, and started taking lots of photos. Never really considered a DSLR beacuse of the weight and bulk until I spotted the E510 twin lens kit. I have since bought a macro lens (Sigma150) and am still impatiently awaiting the new 8-16mm -  finding the 7-14mm beeing way too expensive for a hobbyist." Having just recently celebrated his 39th birthday, the brand new 7-14mm f4 Digital Zuiko ultra wide zoom Boerge has won will be a most welcome birthday present.

Boerge insisted we allow him his winner's acceptance speech, so here goes: "I have an elder brother who is a professional photographer, and have enjoyed his truly inspiring work for more than twenty years. He has taught me much of the basics, and also that brands and lots of equipment is irrelevant for enjoying photography. He uses Canon, so luckily he couldn't participate. I'd like to give a really big thank you to some of the people at the olympus slr talk forum @dpreview and wrotniak both for making the decision to go for the E510, and sort out all the right in-camera tweaks. And most of all to the generous people who voted for my picture in the contest. I have never even considered to participate in a photo-contest before, and seriously have a hard time believing I actually won. In my sincere opinion some of the other entries were truly amazing, and would be deserving winners. I really hope I will dare to post some pictures taken with the fantastic lens. Thank you to all at Fourthirds-users and Olympus UK E-System User Group for making this possible!!

And I'm sure I speak for many in congratulating Boerge too!

There is more good news, too. Olympus UK is keen to develop the competition and we will be announcing an even bigger and better follow up to the Spring Competition, so watch this space!