Many stunning photos were entered so we havebeen forced to be quite ruthless to make a short list of just a dozen images.

 We have tried to pick a range of verydifferent images to give readers a wide choice as they decide who will be thewinner of a Nikon D5100 digital SLR camera and the TradeWinds’ MaritimePhotographer of the Year trophy.

Butnow it falls to you to pick a winner by sending an email containing your name,company and your favourite photograph to competition@tradewindsnews.com

Don’tforget to clearly indicate your choice and explain why you like it.

Clickhere to view a gallery of the shortlisted entries.

Thedeadline for voting is noon GMT on Wednesday 12 December.

Inthe interest of fairness to all participants, we reserve the right to disallowmultiple votes or ones that come from unidentified e-mail addresses.

Thanksto all who entered.

Toview a selection of this year’s entries click here for the first half and herefor the second half of a gallery of images.

Lastyear’s winner was Peter Russotti of d’Amico Tankers’ chartering department withan atmospheric shot of a shaft of light piercing the gloom in a tank of the36,000–dwt products carrier Cielo di Salerno (built 2002).

In2010 the winner was Hamburg shipping fund manager, Holger Laufer, with adramatic photograph of workers at the Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry yardknocking away the chocks prior to the slipway launch of a containership.

In2009 the winner was Daewoo Mangalia manager, Sebastian Depner, who scooped theprize with the aid of seagulls on a mooring rope of a soon to be deliveredcontainership.

Thewinner in 2008 was Capt Charles Brown of OSG Shipmanagement with a shot of his47,200-dwt products carrier Overseas Maremar (built 1998) about to sail under arainbow.

Thewinner in 2007 was Russian shipping banker Egor Ryabchenko with a photo of theice encrusted 5,500-dwt sea-river cargoship Rusich-5 (built 2005) in the BalticSea.

Competition rules

This is a maritime photography competition so only images relating to the merchant shipping industry are eligible. Images submitted may reflect shipboard life, show vessels or parts of vessels, illustrate maritime operations, news events or otherwise have a clear relationship to our industry while demonstrating the creative and/or technical skills of the photographer.

  • Photographs can be entered as digital images, prints or transparencies and be colour or monochrome. Up to 10 images may be submitted by each contestant.
  • Digital images should be submitted as jpg files of at least 1MB, print entries should be of a minimum size of 125mm x 175mm, while transparencies should be 35mm format or larger. Good quality scans of prints or transparencies are also acceptable.
  • Images should be the original work of the contestant and taken since 1 January 2011. Images should be without embedded text or date stamps. All entries should be accompanied by a caption showing where and when the photograph was taken, the name of the ship if relevant, the camera used and the name of the photographer.
  • Images should not have been digitally created or edited but use of filters, time exposures and other traditional photographic techniques is acceptable.
  • A contestant's occupation should be in the shipping or related maritime industries. Those eligible include seafarers, shipowners, shipmanagers, shipbrokers, marine surveyors and inspectors, classification and marine administration officials, port employees, search and rescue and coastguard officers, ship finance, marine insurance and shipping law professionals, as well as students on a course leading to a shipping industry career. The competition is not open to ship enthusiasts, professional photographers or naval personnel, other than those involved in search and rescue, pirate interdiction or other services relating to merchant shipping. Employees of TradeWinds and related companies are also not eligible.
  • The winning contestant will receive a Nikon D5100 digital slr or equivalent camera and the TradeWinds' Maritime Photographer of the Year trophy. The winning image and the name of the successful contestant will be published by TradeWinds soon after the closing date.
  • Copyright remains with the photographer but TradeWinds may publish submitted images in the course of this or future photographic competitions.
  • TradeWinds reserves the right to crop images for the purposes of publication.
  • Digital images should be e-mailed to competition@tradewindsnews.com with the attached images clearly captioned along with details of the contestant. Prints or slides can be mailed to TradeWinds Photo Competition, Christian Krohgs gate 16, PO Box 1182 Sentrum, N-0107 Oslo, Norway, or TradeWinds Photo Competition, 25 Farringdon Street, London, EC4A 4AB, England.
  • The closing date for entries for the competition is noon GMT on Friday 30 November. A short list of the best entries will be selected by the editor of TradeWinds with the final winner chosen through a readers' vote. Voting closes noon GMT Wednesday 12 December with the winner to be announced shortly afterwards.
  • In all matters relating to this competition, the decision of the editor of TradeWinds is final. TradeWinds will do its best to return submitted images if requested but is under no obligation for any lost or damaged.

 

About the prize

The feature packed 16.2 megapixel Nikon D5100 digital slr with an 18-105mm zoom lens should help the winner take even better photographs.

The successful contestant may, however, choose another digital or film camera or item of photographic equipment of equivalent value.