Cityscapes at Night

This is an outstanding scene overlooking Dubai in the moments before sunrise. Shooting in the 'magic' hour, the hour before sunrise (or after sunset), he's caught some fantastic cool blue and pink hues in the sky as it's not totally lit yet by the sun and this colour palette really helps to balance the warmer tones on the intricate road system in the bottom third of the frame. Wim's cityscape is packed full of colour, atmosphere and detail. Great job!

The shot has an excellent composition and depth with the striking and vibrant light trails swirling through the foreground and the Battersea power station looming in the background. My only slight issue with this shot is that the sky it a little too dark with no detail and would have benefitted from being shot at dusk or in the blue hour where the photographer might have been able to capture a bit more colour or cloud detail in the sky. Small niggles aside it's an awesome shot worthy of being commended this month. Great job!

Julia has captured a fantastic shot of the Grand Canal in Venice. We've seen countless photos of this famously picturesque spot over the years but not many can match the fantastic lighting and tones Julia recorded here. We also love her use of a long shutter speed of 30 seconds which has turned the lights of passing boats into beautiful trails.

Wayne's captured an impressive London cityscape and has carefully balanced his frame with strong foreground as well as The Shard in the background to give his image loads of depth. We also love the strong geometric lines in the scene and rush of movement in the sky that he's achieved by using a long exposure of 30 seconds, this has also helped blur the Thames river a little too.

Mike's done an amazing job at photographing this stunning Singapore cityscape and unique ArtScience Museum building. There's some fantastic detail in the buildings which are reflected wonderfully in the water and helps provide strong contrast to the darker blue sky from shooting in the 'magic' hour.

Chris has caught a brilliant night cityscape of the Shanghai skyline here, it's full of vibrancy, atmosphere and drama thanks to the use of his slow shutter speed that's done a good job at adding some motion to the water, clouds and passing boat. If we were being being picky we'd have liked a slightly wider framing to give the main tower some space to breath as it currently sits right at the top frame edge which looks a little awkward, some of the buildings towards the far left and right of the frame are also suffering from some minor perspective distortion and appear to be leaning inwards, easily fixed in post-processing. Minor niggles aside it's a great shot worthy of being commended this month - well done!

Nathan's caught a wonderful skyline scene here of Moscow's new commercial city district. There's some beautiful contrast between the perfectly blue sky in the background and the fiery orange and yellow sunset tones reflected on the windows of the skyscrapers in the foreground. Great job!

We love this low-light architectural shot for several reasons. For starters it's packed with incredible detail and the photographer has done a stellar job at balancing the highlights and shadows, making sure no tones were clipped. We also love the angle of The Chrysler Building which helps anchor it as the focal point, it's also framed neatly by the other buildings and incredible sky detail giving this photo an enormous amount of depth throughout.

We love this night scene from Bendik who shot the Wat Arun temple in Bangkok, Thailand from across the Chao Phraya River. There's some fantastic detail in the scene and the illuminated Wat Arun temple stands out from its cooler surroundings like a beacon that guides the eye straight to it through the frame.

This is a fantastic shot of London's iconic Tower Bridge and we love how the photographer here has created long traffic trails with a 30 second exposure to create a vibrant series of lead-in lines that guide the eye towards the tower in the distance which is of course the focal point. Great job!

Cinque Terre is a heaven for landscape photographers, with its townscapes and colourful houses adorning the coastline beautifully. Daniele has done a brilliant job of photographing the town of Manarola and chosen to shoot at night when its lit up magically by the street lights and full moon. Great job!

Simon's captured an interesting and very different shot of Westminster than we're used to seeing which makes it unique and refreshing. We love the intersecting traffic trails which are vibrant, dynamic and very eye-catching. Stopping this image from making it into our Top 10 this month is the very dark sky, which is completely black. We think if you went back to shoot a little earlier at dusk or in the blue hour where you can get some sky definition and detail then you'b be well on your way to catching a winner!

Helen's captured a very ethereal scene of Venice here. It's eerily quiet and Helen's conversion to black and white adds loads of drama and atmosphere that really helps the lighting, shadows and shapes within the architecture to shine through. Great job!

Fireworks can be a particularly tricky subject to photograph as you're dealing with low light environments, unpredictable fireworks and extremely bright lights so we're always impressed when we see a good one! Saket's shot is composed well and nicely balanced with the huge Marina Bay Sands hotel anchoring the shot on the left, wonderfully lit up buildings in the background and of course the interesting firework explosions on the right which he's frozen masterfully with good technique. He's made sure to include the marina in the bottom third of the frame to add some wonderful reflections too. Great job!