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Here Are 10 Spectacular Semi-Finalist Photos from the Red Bull Illume Image Quest Contest

Henry Anderson  |  Sep 26, 2019

To help create awareness about the serious problem of poaching and the drought affecting the Rhino population in Namibia, Eric Garbers and myself went and performed these tricks in the middle of a secret location between these wild Rhinos. We spent weeks letting the rhinos get use to us and the ramp and once they saw we where not a threat, we managed to get within a couple of meters while doing these tricks. © Shawn van Eeden/Red Bull Illume 2019

If you like adventure and sports photography, the Red Bull Illume Image Quest is the contest to see some mind-blowing action shots. With only eight weeks to go before the winners of the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2019 are announced, contest organizers just released a selection of some of the semi-finalist images and we’ve included 10 of our favorites in this story.

UPDATE: The winners of the the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2019 photo contest have been announced.

It just so happens that Shutterbug's Editor-in-Chief Dan Havlik was one of the judges in this prestigious contest, which is now in its fifth year. The Red Bull Illume Image Quest judging panel was comprised of fifty photo editors and digital experts from world-renowned photography magazines and websites. It was up to the judges to select the best of the best sports, action and adventure images in several judging rounds. The first selection of semi-finalist revealed today are from the Innovation by Sony category. Semi-finalists include the previous edition’s overall winner, Lorenz Holder, and photographers such as: Christoph Laue, Keke Lappala, Shawn van Eeden, and more. 

The overall Red Bull Illume winners will be reveled at an awards ceremony on November 20, 2019, at the LUMEN – Museum of Mountain Photography. According to organizers, this edition of the contest broke records with 59,551 images submitted by thousands of photographers from all around the world. They're all vying for their share of €100,000 ($110,000 USD) in prizes from photography brands such as Sony, SanDisk, Skylum, and COOPH.

In the end, judges selected 60 finalists, 11 category winners and one overall winner from nearly 60,000 images. Stay tuned to Shutterbug.com to find out the winners and, in the meantime, enjoy these 10 amazing semi-finalist images with caption info from the photographers.

One day everyone was in town and I got Pat Duffy, Rune Glifberg, Sam Beckett and Kevin Baekkel to get together for fun session at the jungle after inspired by the legendary Animal Chin ramp. All except the local (Pat) are wearing white t-shirts. Timing of this shot took a while as you can imagine, but after some time everyone got their tricks aligned and we nailed it. Shot from the 20m high tower next to the park. © Keke Leppala/Red Bull Illume 2019

Fifty years after the first man on the moon, we took the first rider up there. The idea behind this shot was to create an action image in which you feel like you're on the moon, looking down at the earth. These days many people would think of Photoshopping this background first, but that was not my way of doing it. To create this, I bought a huge beach ball that looked like the earth and hung it up in the background of the action. © Christoph Laue/Red Bull Illume 2019

© Jeremy Bernard/Red Bull Illume 2019

World Cup in Moscow 2018 © Kirill Umrikhin/Red Bull Illume 2019

We wanted to bring the tropical vibe to a snow-covered mountain. With the Sea-Doo being the cherry on top. © Eirik Aadde/Red Bull Illume 2019

© Frode Sandbech/Red Bull Illume 2019

An artist draws a picture during the Freestyle Skiing Men's Aerials Qualification at the 28th Winter Universiade in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Jan. 30, 2017. © Maohua Fei/Red Bull Illume 2019

© Lorenz Holder/Red Bull Illume 2019

© Dominique Daher/Red Bull Illume 2019

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