Whalebone Photo Contest: Motion

Motion creates emotion.

And we’re not just saying that because we’ve been attending a significant amount of online motivational speaker classes. The energy of the world is alive and well and we’re thankful there are those that take time out of their lives to document, share, and remind us that staying in motion has all types of positive effects. The MOTION category created all types of emotions.

Shivesh Ram | Tossing a Fishing Net

“The Cormorant Fisherman of China are iconic and photographed by many tourists. But living and working in China for a decade, my objective was to learn about them socio-culturally and as people (my basic Mandarin Chinese skills from living there helped). Now elderly, and having been made obsolete by Modern China’s fishing fleets, they ironically make more money from tourist pictures than fishing ! As they talked about their traditional techniques, only the youngest brother of the elderly group could still toss a heavy fishing net. As he threw, I was drawn to the emotion, character, and residual strength in his face, so I decided to freeze the motion and action of his throw in a tight shot, using a 120mm zoom. I love the layers and textures in the image – the net, his clothes, the birds and iconic Karst mountain scenery often seen in paintings.”

Alain Schroeder | Dead Goat Polo 4 | @alainschroeder

“Trying to outrun your opponents with a decapitated (headless) goat wedged between your leg and your horse, might not be your idea of a fun game, but in Kyrgyzstan, Kok Boru is the national sport. “Dead goat polo,” as some refer to it, feels more to me like cavalier rugby. Generally organized in two teams of four, but sometimes many more, riders race from one end of the field to the other chasing the rider with the goat whose sole intention is to score a point by heaving the 30-kilo body into the Tai Kazan (goal) on either end. Only stallions are used in this game, as they are naturally anti-social and eager to fight off rivals. The men train their horses to muscle out other horses while they try to snatch the goat and race full speed towards the Tai Kazan, braking only as they slam into the rubber tires around the edge of the meter-high mound.”

Sydney Gawlik | Cage In The Rain | @sydgaw

“I used my tried and true Canon 5D Mark III, which handles weather pretty well. When I first got it I left it outside and the sprinklers pummeled it, but the bad boy still works. This was in Atlanta in 2019. It was raining, Cage the Elephant closed the festival that night, and I had climbed a light tower to be above the crowd and avoid the rain. This is the pinnacle of movement for me. It is all sensory—feeling the rain drench the crowd, hearing the music drown out the thumping on the tarp above, seeing the lights illuminate the massive sea of people.”