Sony World Photography Awards, 2014, Part 2

Continuing a selection of announced winnersand placegetters in the above awards in various categories, overall winners to still be announced.  Captions are by the photographers.

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Winner, Nature and Wildlife, Open Competition: I came out of my car for a quick shot in the snow. The country lanes were slippery. I walked through the cold snow to get to the Pony. When I got there I realized that I had the wrong lens on my camera for the effect that I wanted. So I went back, changed lenses and made the picture, and came closer than I wanted.

Winner, Spain, National Award: Young Mohammed Salam - in the foreground - travels regularly on iron ore hoppers through the Mauritanian Sahara, from the open-pit hematite mine center of Zouerat, to the commercial port of Nouadhibou. The journey is precarious and exhausting, but free transportation of goods provide him and his colleagues with a way to make a living. The so called "Sahara Express" was completed in 1963, three years after Mauritania's independence as a french colony, and it is considered one of the longest trains in the world. Exceeding 2.5 km long, it runs daily almost 700 Km from the deep desert to the Atlantic coast and it takes about 17 hours.

3rd Place, Germany, National Awards: Pilgrims and devotees cross pontoon bridges at the Maha Kumbh Mela - the largest spiritual gathering on the planet, held every 12 years in India.

Winner, Australia, National Awards: Cormorant fisherman just after dawn on the Li River near Xingping, Guangxi Province, China.

Winner, Low Light, Open Competition: Bucharest, Turda Blvd., 41 tram station. As the weather got worse in the evening, I hesitated to use the camera before. Before i spotted one interesting situation, with pedestrians walking against car lights, on a zebra crossing. The snow had become chaotic as sharp cold wind became annoying. Cars where barely advancing, the light was difficult, the woman with umbrella was standing there petrified. I pulled out the camera and took the picture, handheld, marking the first snow of the year.

Third Place, Argentina, National Awards: Ruins of Villa Epecuen in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. In 1985, a dam burst, causing the salty Lago Epecuen to flood the town to a depth of 10 meters. The village was never rebuilt.

Third Place, France, National Awards: Young members of the Saa tribe in Ratap Village, Vanuatu.

Winner, Netherlands, National Award: Unfortunately you don't have the winters anymore you used to have in the 17th century. In the beginning of 2013 I was lucky with a short time of winter. I had the idea to take a picture of an old Dutch landscape and was looking for a perfect location: which I found in Dwarsgracht, a small authentic village. Looking for the perfect light I'd been waiting for hours for the golden glow. I decided to find a high position, which I found in a tree for which I had to borrow a ladder from the locals to climb the tree. So I had a good view on the ice when the last skaters past by, they made the picture complete.

Third Place, Singapore, National Awards: Built in the 60s, Jalan Bukit Ho Swee houses some of the oldest Public Housing Blocks in Singapore. More than 80% of Singapore's entire population lives in public housing. industrial modernist cubes of monotony, punctuated by varied paraphernalia - potted plants, religious altars, chained bikes, racks of wet clothes marking and defining personal spaces; individual homes in a patterned whole, like intricate tilework. Culture is not maintained through mere inheritance, something left over from our forefathers which we struggle to keep relevant. But from the banal, the mundane, the ritual, we create culture, variation, and somehow, coherence.

Second Place, Turkey, National Awards: A muddy face from the mud bath going into the lake.

inner, Youth, Portraits: The photograph was taken during my journey to China in November 2013 with my best friend. The photograph was taken while we were on a night train. We stayed there for 24 hours, so I was in a confined space for a quite limited amount of time. I got up early in the morning to get out and to capture the atmosphere you could find amongst the travelers. And then I found that girl who attracted my attention from the very first moment I saw her. Somehow, she perfectly conveyed a sense of the atmosphere that was present amongst the many travelers on the train. Most of them were waiting eagerly to reach their individual destinations, many of them looking out of the window and watching the world pass by as the train sped through the country, completely captivated by the landscape flying by.

Winner, Split Second, Open Competition: This image was captured in a village in Kuantan, Pahang. Malaysia, with a high shutter speed, using available light only.

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