24 Mobile Photographers Til Christmas 2014: Chris Stern

Following on from last years successful ’24 Mobile Photographers Til Christmas’ series and to celebrate the forthcoming festive season and another year in the timeline of Mobiography I have decided to repeat the series and showcase the work, thoughts and insights of 24 talented mobile photographers. Each featured photographer has inspired and supported me in one way or another during the course of the past 2 years and I will be asking them to offer an insight into their photography, to reflect on their year gone by or plans for the coming year ahead.

Each day until Christmas Eve we will be featuring one photographer in a sort of online advent calendar so to speak.

Today’s featured photographer is Chris Stern

My incredible encounter or story which has been part of my photographic journey this year is…

Earlier this year, I went up to visit my in-laws for the weekend in southern Maine and while I was there a huge snowstorm came through the area. I decided to go on an adventure to capture some black and white photos of the snowcapped trees. I took this photo at Mousam Lake located in Shapleigh, ME. I decided to name it “Lone Lake House.” What captured my eye in this scene was the lake house nestled between the trees. In addition, I was mesmerized by how the falling snow created this sort of gradient of light to dark.

Over the past few years, I entered my photos into numerous competitions such as the Mobile Photo Awards, iPhone Photography Awards, as wells as several open calls. I have been fortunate to have some of my photos selected as honorable mentions but never placed in any of the competitions or selected to be exhibited. This past summer I entered the “Lone Lake House” into the Pocket Vistas open call which was hosted by the Mobile Photo Awards and judged by two fantastic landscape photographers, Finn Beale and Paul Moore. In August, I was notified that my photo was selected to be a part of the Pocket Vistas exhibit in Ontario, Canada in the month of the September. The exhibit showcased 60 photos from all over the world. During this time, all the photos were available for sale to the public.

The experience to me was one that I could never have imagined given this was a hobby but to have my photo exhibited took it to another level. The best part of it was getting a message from Dan Berman, founder of the Mobile Photo Awards that my photo had been sold to a private collector who contacted him after the show was over. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I got the news. I was thrilled that someone appreciated my work enough to take it home with them.

What I learned from this process was to never give up and be persistent. If you have entered photos in competitions or open calls and never received recognition, please don’t give up as your time will come. Just be patient and continue to improve on your mobile photography by taking photos as often as possible.

Connect with Chris Stern

Instagram | EyeEm | Flickr | Facebook