Calm Water by Sandra Frimpong
Captured in the heart of Porto Napoli, Campania, this photograph depicts a serene moment before a potential storm, where the clouds part to reveal brilliant sunshine. Sandra Frimpong focuses on a collection of canoes resting peacefully along the coast, waiting for the return of local fishermen. The image beautifully balances the stillness of the vessels with the anticipation of the surrounding tourist activity. It is an award-worthy composition that transforms a simple, quiet scene into a compelling narrative of coastal life, showcasing the photographer's ability to find profound beauty in the brief, overlooked pauses of a busy day.
Exposure 1/350sec @ f/11 | ISO 200 | Focal Length 18mm
Alicja Posłuszna
She was born and lives in Bydgoszcz, PolandNikon. Photography is her love almost since she was a child. She remembers how she liked to stare at the stories of people and places written on a small piece of glossy paper. When she was growing up, the camera was her inseparable friend, but the learning, the responsibilities of a young mother and the new challenges of adult life put her passion to sleep for a few years. They have been inseparable from photography for ten years. The photographing of interesting people, places, and situations arranged by her, is a manner for her to "decode the world". The camera amplifies the impressions and allows us to touch the moment whose destiny, from the moment of its creation, was oblivion.
Resonance Score Breakdown
Transparency Note: The resonance score (13.6/20) is calculated based on social engagement metrics collected before the award announcement.
Expert Photography Reviews · 4
The Weight of Waiting
I spent this morning sitting on my porch, watching a neighbor’s dog wait for a car that wasn't coming. He sat perfectly still, ears perked, staring down the empty street for nearly twenty minutes. It made me wonder about the art of waiting.
Read the reflection →The Weight of the Waiting
There is a specific silence that belongs to a boat pulled onto the sand. It is not the silence of peace, but the silence of a held breath.
Read the reflection →Reviews & Comments
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We look at these empty canoes in Porto Napoli and we don’t just see wood and water; we hear the silence of the fishermen who aren’t there yet. Sandra listened to the rhythm of the tide before she clicked the shutter. It’s a portrait of an absence, a quiet breath held before the day’s work begins. I find myself longing to sit on that dock. It’s a photograph that asks to be returned to.
1/350sec at f/11, 18mm, ISO 200. It’s a safe, clinical choice for a landscape. Stopping down to f/11 ensures the D5100’s sensor captures the foreground canoes and the distant horizon with equal, biting sharpness. It’s technically sound, though I’d prefer a wider aperture to isolate the subject from the clutter. Still, the exposure is precise. It’s rare to see such disciplined light management in travel work. I’m actually impressed by the lack of chromatic aberration.
The canoes anchor the foreground, creating a rigid horizontal axis that stabilizes the frame. The negative space above the water is handled with precision, preventing the sky from overwhelming the composition. It’s a disciplined arrangement of mass. I’ve grown weary of travel photography that relies on sentiment, but the structural tension here holds. The eye is refused a wandering path, forced instead to acknowledge the fulcrum of the hulls. It’s a rare instance of genuine, quiet order.
Before the eye identifies the canoes, something in the chest softens. It’s the way the light hits the water—a sudden, sharp clarity that forces a held-breath moment. I feel a strange, quiet ache looking at those empty vessels; they’re waiting for a purpose that hasn’t arrived yet. When I return to this a year later, the anticipation of the storm feels like my own. It’s a beautiful, heavy stillness that follows me into sleep.