Red Bull Illume action photo contest winners take the stage on Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars

avenue of stars contest hong kong illume illume 2013 leica photographer photography photos red bull

posted Saturday, August 31, 2013 at 12:25 PM EST

Last April, we mentioned Red Bull's Illume contest in our coverage of the company's incredibly cool wakeboarding-and-light-painting photo shoot. Red Bull Illume is an action and adventure-themed photo contest that takes place every three years, and the latest round of winners have just been announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong.

If you're looking for a source of inspiration to get you off the sofa and outdoors to shoot some great photos over the weekend, these awesome photos will provide it in spades. (And if not -- well, you'll still get to see some really great photos!)

The Red Bull Illume 2013 award ceremony took place on the Avenue of Stars -- Hong Kong's equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- with the city's famous skyline and harbor providing an appropriately colorful backdrop for the event.

The Red Bull Illume 2013 category and overall winners were presented at an event on Tsim Sha Tsui's Avenue of Stars, which lines the waterfront of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.

All 50 finalists photos were shown, before winners were chosen in ten categories. From these, Red Bull athletes selected one image as the Athletes' Choice, while a panel of 50 judges selected another as the overall winner for 2013. Winner of the overall prize for 2013 was Lorenz Holder of Germany, whose photos also topped both the Playground and Experimental categories.

For his grand prize-winning photo, Holder shot German snowboarder Xaver Hoffmann doing his thing beneath a mammoth parabolic satellite in Raisting, Bavaria. The shot was illuminated with two Elinchrom strobes behind the base of the communications antenna, simultaneously lighting the snowflakes and placing Hoffman in silhouette. The effect is striking, and it won Holder €30,000 (US$40,000) worth of camera gear from sponsors Leica, Broncolor, and Sun-Sniper, including a Leica S2 camera system.

Lorenz Holder, the overall winner for 2013, receives his prize -- including a Leica S2 camera.

And it wasn't just Holder who took home a prize. All ten category winners received a Leica X2 camera, Broncolor Para 88 P Kit, and a selection of gear from Sun-Sniper. They also earned the right for their photos to be exhibited on ~7 foot (2m) square lightboxes along the Avenue of Stars, where they will remain on display for the next three weeks, providing a free public exhibition for Hong Kong locals and tourists alike.

(If you're planning to be in town, the location -- just minutes walk from East Tsim Sha Tsui station on the MTR -- couldn't be much easier to get to. Time your visit right and you can take in the Symphony of Lights show at the same time, then see the handprints left by some of the best-known figures in Hong Kong's movie scene, all in one evening.)

Following are all ten category winners, including the overall winner from Lorenz Holder. Unfortunately, the resolution limitations imposed by our news page layout don't really do these great images justice, so we highly recommend a visit to the official Red Bull Illume website to see higher-resolution versions.

Want more action photography goodness? How about an interview with action sports photographer Mirja Geh? (And don't forget to check out those wake boarding / light painting photos we mentioned earlier, too!)