Good news really seems to fall into my inbox lately.  Perhaps this is a good sign.  Then again, perhaps I’m about to feel another dry spell.  Still, I won’t complain and neither should you.  That’s right, landscape photography fans, I have more good news for you.  A winter landscape photo of mine just received an award.  If you want to learn more about the photo and its new award, keep reading.

In keeping with tradition, I’ll share the email contents with you.  Here’s what the announcement email contained.

Hello cramerimaging,

The community has spoken, and we’re thrilled to let you know that one of your photos has been selected to receive a new award!

So, naturally, I clicked on the included link to see which photo and what award it received.  The following text greeted my eyes upon arrival.

Congratulations, from all your photos this shot has been selected by the VIEWBUG team to receive the Titan Award.  Thank you for sharing your creativity with all of us.

The Titan Award goes to the photograph that has received the most awards in various categories. This special honor celebrates amazing talent and creativity in photography.

If you’re wondering about the photo, here it is.  This winter landscape photo just received that Titan award.

This cheery-looking winter scene was 1 of a pair I took that day.  The other recently received its own award.  Now I’m starting to see entire photo shoots worth of portfolio fodder receiving awards.  It feels good.  It also means that I’ve come a long ways in my landscape photography.

Instead of a dark and deepening stormy scene, I wanted this photo to take the path of the bright and cheery (if frozen) winter scene.  I feel I succeeded.  This version has a much brighter feel than its counterpart.  As the storm was still brewing, I didn’t stick around any longer than I needed to in order to take the requisite photos.  I didn’t want to risk the problems associated with becoming stuck in the snow in the remote mountains.  That’s a dangerous business.

Hilariously, in the description, the Titan award is for those photos which “received the most awards in various categories.”  At the time of writing, “Snow Boat” here is sitting at 77 total views, 3 likes, 4 peer awards, a pair of top rank (previously called Trifecta awards) for a single contest (1 a weekly position and the other an overall position), and now this Viewbug award.

Let’s compare those stats to what is perhaps my most decorated winter landscape photo on Viewbug.  “Ice Castle” currently (at time of writing) sits at 1939 views, 179 likes, 187 peer awards, 50 top rank awards (including multiples of weekly and overall placements), and 8 Viewbug awards (including 2 challenge/mini contest wins and 1 people’s choice challenge placement).

The point here is that I often raise my eyebrows at what Viewbug has to say about their awards.  “Snow Boat,” while an exceptional photo in its own right, hardly matches the Titan award definition of “received the most awards in various categories.”  Perhaps that will change over time.  We will see.

So, now I turn things over to you landscape photography fan.  What do you think of this winter landscape photo and its new award?  Is it indeed a Titan?  Do you like this winter landscape photo?  Do you hate it?  Does it deserve the award which it just received  Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.