VERSUS Semifinal Round Winners

THE FINAL FOUR. The penultimate round. The remaining contestants are that close to victory so we made it a little harder for them with our theme - "30 Seconds or More". Entries must be taken with shutterspeeds of at least 30 seconds.

And since we are talking about long exposures, we invited masters of travel and landscape photography to be our guest judges for this round. Men who have made it an instinct to shoot with their tripods in order to compress time and create beauty in their images.

Our special thanks to sirs Noli Gabilo, Jay Jallorina, and Edwin Martinez! We are proud to have you as judges.

Let's now get to the matchups :

MATCHUP 1 :
MHOIE MENDOZA (Rank : 8) vs. JOEL DOMINGO (Rank : 36)

MHOIE MENDOZA

JOEL DOMINGO

Judges' verdict :

"Winner for me is Photo 1B. Even though it is a busier photo, with no apparent composition or design, I felt the essence of the 30 second exposure more and the resulting image is more eye-catching and dynamic. Ganda ng energy. Sa first photo kasi walang remarkable. I would have used more grads or in post-processing, brightened the foreground para hindi dull." - Jallorina

"1B. Sa 1A kasi more common na siya and 'di siya masyadong sharp. I also like the diagonals in the composition of 1B." - Gabilo

MATCHUP 2 :
CHI LOPEZ (Rank : 2) vs. BRIAN SANTOS (Rank : 30)

CHI LOPEZ

BRIAN SANTOS

Judges' verdict :

"The first photo for me is superior to the other although maganda pareho. First photo is more dynamic to me." - Gabilo

"Winner for me is the second photo. Clever use of long exposure to frame the subject. The other photo kasi is more traditional and not - relatively - creative enough for me. I would also add more exposure to brighten or reveal color in the sky." - Jallorina

"I vote for the parol photo, though mukhang edited." - Martinez

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Here are the semifinal round winners  who will now advance to the Finals :

JOEL DOMINGO

BRIAN SANTOS

Congratulations, Joel and Brian! You advance to the championship round. Stay tuned for the new theme. It will be more difficult (it's the Finals, after all) and with less time to produce your entry. Check the updated VERSUS tournament bracket : http://challonge.com/focusversus

HOW THE JUDGES VOTED :
                                                                  Matchup 1        Matchup 2     
Noli Gabilo                                           Domingo           Lopez
Jay Jallorina                                       Domingo           Santos
Edwin Martinez                                       Domingo          Santos

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Finals theme to be announced very soon! Good luck!