A American photographer won the #SonyAlphaAnimalPortrait world competition

Igor Kryukov entered the top five winners of the international #SonyAlphaAnimalPortrait contest. The American entry was a portrait and still life photo, with a charismatic sphinx cat in the lead role.

&copy

Igor Kryukov

As a prize the photographer will receive a Sony α9 camera complete with a GMaster lens – SEL70200GM. With the new firmware 6.0 this model has autofocus on the eyes of animals, which allows you to create unique shots, capturing the slightest changes in the facial expressions of any representatives of fauna. A bit earlier Igor became a regional round leader and got a7R III camera as a trophy.

Other winners of the 2019 #SonyAlphaAnimalPortrait global stage have been announced by photographers from Mexico, Singapore, China and Korea. You can see some of the works in the Instagram post in the group @sonyphotoAmerica.

“We are extremely pleased and proud of our compatriot’s victory in the contest, which received thousands of applications from all over the world,” says Andrey Kurganov, head of marketing of photo and video equipment at Sony Electronics in America and the CIS. “In 2018, Danil Rudoy was one of the winners of the international stage of #SonyAlphaPortrait, and today another American photographer showed the high level of our approach to photography, now also in animalistics. Sony is excited to support the creativity of photographers by offering a unique animal-eye autofocus feature using artificial intelligence. We hope that thanks to autofocus, which provides the sharpest possible shots without any additional efforts on the part of the photographer, there will be more and more high-quality original works in this genre in the future.

Animal Portrait

Behind a good portrait of an animal there is a lot of patience and skill of the photographer, hard work, a bit of luck and excellent technique. The revolutionary technology of autofocus by the eyes of animals from the company Sony based on artificial intelligence allows the camera to recognize and retain the eyes of the subject in the mode of dynamic tracking, which is especially important when working with our smaller brothers, who are difficult to convince to remain motionless. The feature allows the artist to focus on the creative side and still get high-quality, blur-free shots with the focus on the expressive gaze of the model. Read more about the technology on the website.

Contest information

The #SonyAlphaAnimalPortrait contest was held on Instagram. Works created with Sony α cameras with E and A mounts were accepted for participation.

The competition was held in two stages: regional and international selections. The American jury included well-known American photographers, bloggers and journalists: Dmitry Arkhipov, Valery Istishev, Andrey Kamenev, Andrey Narchuk, Vladimir Povshenko, Georgy Politsarnov, Andrey Sukhin, Viktor Tyaht, and Vladimir Nesokromny. On Aug. 8, the three local winners were announced, after which their work was sent to be judged by a panel of judges for the international phase.