Pictures of Success

The ability to look at the ordinary with extraordinary perception--dramatic composition, ex ceptional lighting and instinctive timing--was the key to success for 15 winners in The Times’ 13th annual photography contest.

GRAND PRIZE

JIM BUCHANAN

North Hollywood

Right: Buchanan took this shot of beach cottages in Oceanside in late winter. He used Kodachrome 64 in a Canon FTB with an 85mm lens; the exposure was f2.8 for 1/60th of a second. He says he was impressed with the composition of the scene weeks before the setting sun provided the proper light.

THIRD PRIZE

REBECCA ROUNDS NEUMAN

Santa Barbara

Far right: Sunset’s glow also provided lighting for this tender photograph of Neuman’s son, Alex. She used a 100mm portrait lens on her Canon A-1 to catch the play of textures in the construction materials.

HONORABLE MENTION

DAVID GARDNER

Hollywood

Bottom, far right: Gardner was attracted to the linear graphics and colors produced during the refurbishing of a Westwood building. He used a Canon AT-1 with a 50mm lens and Kodachrome 64.

HONORABLE MENTION

MARY SCOLINOS

San Gabriel

Bottom center: Scolinos says this photograph of her mother in a poppy field near Lancaster is her favorite of all the photos she’s taken. She used a Nikon with a 50mm lens set at f16 and Ektachrome 100.

HONORABLE MENTION

WAYNE MILLER

Pasadena

Right: A serene morning at the Queen Mary-Spruce Goose complex was captured by Miller as he was celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary in Long Beach. He set his Nikon FE with an 80-200mm zoom lens on a tripod and exposed Kodachrome 64 for eight seconds.

FIRST PRIZE

JUDY GROOD KADISH

Santa Monica

Far left: Honeymooning in Greece, Kadish visited the town of Oia, where she took this photo of laundry fluttering above the ocean. She used Kodachrome 64 in her Nikon FE with an 80-200mm Tokina zoom lens and a skylight filter.

HONORABLE MENTION

KATHRYN O’CONNOR

Santa Barbara

Top, near left: A Santa Barbara office building provided the romantic look that O’Connor wanted for this still life. She used a soft-focus filter on a 28-70mm lens and loaded her Canon TLB with Ektachrome 100, which was exposed for 1/250th of a second at f8.5.

HONORABLE MENTION

ALICE WOLMAN

Los Angeles

Left: Vacationing in China in 1982, Wolman zeroed in on a girl in a doorway because, she says, “no one looked like her; nearly everyone else was dressed in Mao-ish blue or black and gray.” Wolman used a Canon AE-1 with a Vivitar 75-205mm zoom lens and Kodachrome 64.

SECOND PRIZE

TIM ROBERTS

Los Angeles

Bottom center: Roberts says he was “just playing around” with his Nikon F-2 and 28mm lens at the end of a rainy spring day in Huntington Beach. A combination of factors created the unusual colors of ocean and pier: the afterglow of sunset, a mercury vapor light and a 15-second exposure at f4.

HONORABLE MENTION

NELSON MACHIN

Sun Valley

Bottom, far left: Machin was looking for fall shots shortly before sunset on an overcast day when he spotted the vivid play of reds on a building in Woodland Hills. He used a Nikon F-3 with a 105mm lens and the last frame on a roll of Ektachrome Professional film, which he underexposed to intensify the colors.

Visions in Black and White

FIRST PRIZE

KATHERINE LEAHY

Torrance

Left: Using a wide-angle lens and Tri-X film, Leahy set her Minolta X-700 on a tripod and exposed the film for 1/30th of a second to create this tranquil image at the Portuguese Bend Equestrian Center in Rancho Palos Verdes.

SECOND PRIZE

RON COOPER

Beverly Hills

Top right: Cooper was about to give up searching for a shot for a photography class called Urban Landscapes when he found this otherworldly perspective and these silhouette graffiti

under a freeway near downtown. Cooper used a Pentax 6x7 with Tri-X exposed for two seconds at f3.5.

THIRD PRIZE

CHARLENE BURROUGHS

Burbank

Bottom, far left: Burroughs, who works part time for a photo studio and aspires to be a professional photographer, took this portrait for an Art Center College of Design class. She used Tri-X and a Hasselblad with an 80mm lens.

HONORABLE MENTION

MICHAEL VARHOL

Los Angeles

Bottom left: This shot of a rescue effort at Zuma Beach was one of a series of eight taken by Varhol, a screenwriter and producer. He used a Nikkormat with Tri-X, which emphasized the grainy effect produced by the overcast day and the sand that was scattered by the helicopter blades.

HONORABLE MENTION

JOHN HATT

Alta Loma

Right: It’s not the film director’s tombstone, but the evocative name and a wide-angle lens on a Hasselblad 4x5 helped create foreboding in this photograph, taken at a Claremont cemetery. Hatt used a No. 87 filter and high-speed infrared film exposed one second at f32.

Contest judges were free-lance photographer Loretta Ayeroff and magazine staff members Phil Waters, associate art director; Marilou Vaughn, senior editor; Sunny Gibbs, editorial production, and Rosemary Kaul, photographer.