MANITOULIN – Renowned Manitoulin Island photographer Peter Baumgarten is one of 13 outstanding photographers who has had one of his works chosen as some of the best images of 2021, being selected as one of the winners in the 2021 Canadian Photos of the Year competition.
“One of my images was selected as the winner, in the Epic Landscapes category in this year’s Canadian Geographic Photos of the Year competition,” Mr. Baumgarten told The Expositor last week. “They had over 7,000 entries in the competition, the largest turnout in years.”
Mr. Baumgarten won in the ‘Epic Landscapes’ category for his photo described as, “streaks of sunlit clouds over Providence Bay on Manitoulin Island, Ontario echo the island’s stratified rock formations.”
Mr. Baumgarten explained, “I captured the image in Providence Bay near the marina on October 25, 2022. Providence Bay is one of my favourite places to photograph the sunset. It has a nicely varied shoreline, from its beautiful sandy beach to the rugged limestone, typical of the Niagara Escarpment. I usually look for something interesting to include in the foreground of my landscape images.”
“On this particular evening I noticed the thinly layered rock strata and it seemed like the perfect point of interest against the similarly streaked sunlit clouds,” continued Mr. Baumgarten. “When the last bit of sunlight peeked through an opening in the clouds, it was the icing on the cake. These types of conditions are rare in landscape photography. I knew I had a good image the instant I saw it on the camera’s LCD.”
Mr. Baumgarten stated, “I am particularly proud that an image of Manitoulin Island was selected. When you think of epic Canadian landscapes you often think of Banff, Gros Morne, or a similar setting. Manitoulin has some epic scenes, just on a smaller scale.”
