Nikon reigns supreme as Alden Globo claims the top prize: Siestas, Day Dreams and Flight

posted Sunday, April 2, 2017 at 10:20 AM EDT

[Editor's note: An astute reader has pointed out that the First Prize image has an obvious post-processing anomaly. (Can you spot it? If not, see the reader comments down below!) Stay tuned for more on how we'll be remedying the error on our part, and apologies for having missed it during our voting process.]

Mirrorless comes and mirrorless goes, but DSLR's continue to rule the prize money in our contest. We at IR very much love both form factors, and most of us own at least one of each. But the readers who claim their portion of the $600 Adorama cash that we award each and every month for the best submitted photographs have been 97% DSLR shooters when it counts most, and that dates back pretty much as far as you care to look in our contest.

But before we go any further down the gear road, we offer a warm and grateful Congratulations to Alden Globo for his captivating image "Siesta" and its victory in our contest in Feburary! Being the shortest and generally the coldest month of the year here in the northern hemisphere, we believe this image captures the heart of February well with its simplicity and haunting beauty.

First Prize • $300 gift certificate from Adorama

First Prize • Siesta by Alden Globo • Nikon D600

And now back to gear for a bit, as that's the primary reason most readers come to us. As mentioned, DSLR's have dominated our contest over the years, with the Top 5 each month being fully 97% Canon and Nikon DSLR's for at least the past 5 years. Every now and again we see a Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic or Sony camera claim prize money in our contest, but all together those brands amount to a very small portion of the actual top 5. With all of the advances in mirrorless technology, image quality and autofocus, this is astounding!

This month is rare in one instance though, as Nikon has claimed 4 of the top 5 slots, all with DSLR's. They've achieved this feat only one other time in the past 5 years, and that was in August of 2013. (They claimed 4 slots on two other occassions, but both of those had some film cameras mixed in.) Canon remains the only company to claim all 5 of the top spots in one month, having done so in June of 2015, while in July 2014 and September 2015 they claimed 4 spots.

And speaking of Canon, here's one of our decorated regulars, Bob Jensen, in second place this month with a trusty 5D Mark III and a beautiful portrait called "Day Dreaming." We receive precious few good portrait submissions in our contest (hint!) and are grateful to Bob for this image and all the wonderful submissions he sends our way. (Special note: Bob easily wins the prize from us for the most winning submissions by a photograher using cameras from different companies, having won prizes with Canon, Fuji and Nikon!)

Second Prize • $200 gift certificate from Adorama

Second Prize • Day Dreaming by Bob Jensen • Canon 5D Mark III

Back to Nikon now, and another regular in our contest and no stranger to the awards podium. Peter K. Burian is not only an accomplished photographer but a wonderful writer as well, and has penned a few nice Reader Stories for us over the years, so make sure and check those out if you've yet to see them!

(Thanks for this wonderful composition, Peter!)

Third Prize • $100 gift certificate from Adorama

Third Prize • Owl Flying in Autumn by Peter K. Burian • Nikon D800

Congratulations once again to our worthy prize-winning images from February 2017!

This month marks a significant milestone for us in our photography contest, as it's been five years since we started including 2 additional outstanding photographs for recognition in our contest. As less than 10% of entries into the contest even receive a coveted daily award placement, and only about 15% of those images receive a Top 5 recognition, these photographs are also in the upper echelon in the well-deserved recognition category!

Additional Honors

First Runner-up • Ebony Langur by Abeselom Zerit • Nikon D810

Second runner-up • Brand New Skin by Judy Bowen • Nikon D7100

• February Winners' Gallery •

Thanks to all photographers who enter our contest, and please keep the excellent submissions coming our way!

[Editor's note: When voting for the monthly winners, the voting panel is only shown the printed images and is not aware of the name of the photographers nor the camera models.]

• • •

And so the interplay in our contest between Nikon and Canon DSLR's continues. For more about what our prize-winning photographers shoot with and why, straight from the source, please see this article. It's from a few years ago, but is still quite relavant today.

And for those of you wanting to know more about our competition please visit this news story, which describes our contest and also offers some useful tips to help you succeed, and this story that warns you of the best ways to NOT succeed. To see the camera and exposure information for this month's winners, please click any image above, and to see winners from previous months, please visit our POTD winner's gallery.

[And if you're ready to enter now, just click here!]

On a related note, we've just started a new series of articles called "Reader Stories," where we turn the tables and let you, our readers, do the talking! We're interested in seeing more of the shots you're the happiest with, and in hearing just how you got them, or just hearing about your passions, interests and the gear you love! Intrigued? Please click here!