A win for the Philippines and Argentina in Sony Ericsson World View 2008

London, UK — Sony Ericsson has announced the winners from its global mobile camera phone photography competition, World View 2008. Now in its third successful year, World View has once again brought together the global mobile imaging community by enabling anyone with a camera phone, to capture and submit their best images — with the chance to win one of two holidays of a lifetime.

The Expert’s Choice Award

The camera phone photo entitled “Peace” has won the “Expert’s Choice Award” for Sony Ericsson’s World View 2008 competition.  Taken by Marriane Nill from the Philippines, her photo impressed the international panel of photography experts, and was chosen as the winner from over 64,905 photos submitted from 27 countries.

The world-renowned judging panel felt the photo demonstrated success on all levels and that it captured the essence of mobile photography as it was spontaneous, humorous, memorable and communicated to a universal audience. The judges also thought the use of natural light was excellent and they believed people from all over the world would be able to relate to this photo because it taps into people’s emotions.

Marriane will receive a once in a lifetime photography trip for two, worth £10,000, to really test out her camera phone skills.

David Viggers, leading UK based press photographer and World View judge, commented, “This year, the best was even better. World View shows what camera phones are made for; they have the unique capability to capture spur-of-the-moment situations.

The two experts’ runners-up photos include: “Switching a Bulb” by Minghui Li from China and “Going Upstairs” by Riemer Dekker from the Netherlands. They will both receive the latest stunning Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot 8.1 mega-pixel front sliding mobile phone, enabling them to continue capturing spontaneous moments in life.

Tony Briggs, a UK-based photographer and World View judge, commented on the overall World View entries by adding: “No one takes pictures of things they want to forget. This is the essence of mobile phone photography.”

The People’s Choice Award

This year Sony Ericsson introduced a new award, “The People’s Choice Award,” which enabled the public to vote for their favourite camera phone image entered into World View 2008. Gisela Cañete from Argentina received the most votes with “My best memories”, and has won a once in a lifetime photography trip worth £5,000. 

The two runner-ups will also receive Sony Ericsson’s newest C905 Cyber-shot 8.1 mega-pixel camera phone. The runners-up are: Fan Lin, who submitted “The Scent of Wuzhizhou Island” to showcase the beauty of this island, and Fredy Aguilar, who submitted “Colombian Butterfly” because he thought the transparent wings on this butterfly were extremely beautiful and unique.

Merran Wrigley, VP, head of external communications at Sony Ericsson, said, “We expected a high level of participation for World View 2008 and have been extremely pleased with the caliber and number of outstanding photos that were entered. The age of instant content sharing has arrived and Sony Ericsson, with its Cyber-shot range of camera phones, has been at the forefront of this camera phone photography evolution. It is fantastic that people around the world can use high-quality camera phones to spontaneously capture and share their life experiences. Not only that, World View offers an exciting prize incentive to encourage people to test out their camera phones and show-off their best images to the world.” 

Local Market Winner

In the Philippines, where Sony Ericsson World View has partnered with The Philippine STAR, a total of seven images have emerged victorious. A local board of judges convened to choose winners in four image categories.

Marriane Nill, the global competition’s Expert’s Choice Award winner, also won the local image category Amazing Feats with her photo titled “Peace.” Renesito Lacre took an image of San Isidro Labrador Convent, one of the country’s largest and oldest religious landmarks in Siquijor Province to win My Town’s Best Kept Secret.  Eric James Sotomil focused on art elements to win My Mind’s Eye with “Lines:  A contemplation” which he shot by Manila Bay. Franz Robert dela Vega won An Eye for Beauty category with “The Sleeping Pussy” taken in sepia.

Gaining the most votes to win the local People’s Choice awards were Almajed Alfad with “Proud Pinoy”; Christian Recio with “Cat’s Face” and Marbin Ray Binondo’s “Deep Inside.”