Climate change

This image provokes an immediate and unavoidable emotional response. The photographer has done a superb job of making the boys feel very real, rather than just generic figures in a photograph. The tight grouping of them immediately makes me assume they are brothers, and the direct and almost accusatory eye contact stirs some feelings of guilt, which whilst it doesn't make for easy viewing, is something we should all be thinking about in relation to climate change. As the father of two young boys, it's incredibly uncomfortable to imagine them in this seemingly life or death scenario. A powerful and thought provoking image.

There's no denying this is a beautiful image, but in a way that is almost to its detriment in terms of the competition. The composition is sublime, I love the way the photographer has worked to ensure nothing is cropped off around the edges, which would have made for a much less pleasing shot, the flow of the lines is great and the reflections further add interest and serenity. This is a very fine landscape photograph, but ultimately it almost adds too much of a sense of beauty to the floods and makes me long to be able to see and shoot a scene like this myself.

I was initially excited to see the thumbnail of this image as it looked to be a contender, it was only when I opened it up full screen that I then discounted it. The photographer has found a superb scene, that would have perfectly met the brief, but unfortunately the execution has let them down. The horizon is completely skewed, which you can't help but notice when looking at the image. It looks as though there may be distortion from a wide angle lens, which may have been corrected at the right hand side to make the church straight, but this in turn has made the left hand side of the image even more noticeably skewed. I also feel the blue sky is far too saturated and really grabs your attention, when it's the amazing colours of the polluted water that is the key point of interest. All is not lost though,both those things can easily be fixed in processing, and I would also suggest a much tighter crop, to lose the land in the foreground, and really focus attention on the important elements of the photograph. Many photographers, myself included, fall into the trap of trying to get as much into the image as possible, but sometimes less is more.

I feel this image encapsulated the brief more than any other. Its oozing with metaphors about the damage caused to nature by man's thoughtless actions, and unfortunately it's also a very real illustration of it. Presumably the crayfish found a safe haven from the receding waters in the discarded tyre, but ultimately it became an inescapable trap for them. The composition is also very striking with the circle of the tyre central to the diagonals of the parched riverbed emanating from it. It would have been great if the photographer had adjusted viewpoint slightly to be perfectly above the tyre which would have made it even more graphic, and ultimately processing lets the image down. The shot is quite washed out, and would benefit massively from a little work to give it enough punch to do it justice.

There were lots of images of people coping with the very real effects of climate change, but this one really stood out to me on a photographic level as well as a human one. The elevated viewpoint makes for a powerful image, and also adds a sense of being an impartial viewer looking down on the situation. The negative space to the left is used to great effect to add scale and simplify the image. It's often said figures should be able to move into the space in a photograph, but in this instance it feels like they are escaping the rising waters by heading out of it. I also love the lighter area of reflections to the right hand side which just enhance the composition more. A very powerful image.

This image immediately stood out when looking through the entries. It perfectly illustrates the brief – there are few things more synonymous with climate change than the melting of the ice caps. The tension created by the seal near the broken ice works really well. Many photographers seem to shy away from cropping their images, but if it wasn't possible to get closer in at the time, I think this is another one that would really benefit from a much tighter crop. Taking the image in from the top right could be used to great effect. If the broken ice was bleeding off the edge of the image, there would be much more of a sense of danger and ambiguity as to what was the other side of it, which is currently being watered down by the safe areas along the bottom of the shot. The snow also looks a little underexposed, and would benefit from a tweaking the white point to put some zing back into it, but regardless of that it's still a great image.

How could anyone fail to be amused by this image? I've no idea how/where it was shot, but it certainly looks great. There is so much to enjoy in the seemingly hopeless scenario, the epitome of a stiff upper lip. The more you look the more little things there catch your eye, from the absurdity of hanging bunting up that nobody else will see, to the cricket equipment. It is tenuously linked to the brief at best, but it certainly raised a smile so I had to place it in the top 10.

I love this image, and may have placed it higher but for the attention to detail on the processing. At the moment its pretty obvious the sky has been added later, there is a halo of white around the edge of the building which immediately draws attention to this. It may well be that it's just two exposures of the same scene blended to combat the difficult conditions of shooting at night, or it may be that the sky is from a completely different image, but the fact that it's one of the first things you notice detracts massively, which is a real shame as the shapes and contrasts of the backlit windows make for an unusual and compelling image.

I almost dismissed this image out of hand as having an intentionally tilted horizon, a technique which always leaves me a little cold. It was only on further viewing that I realised the actual building was sliding away. I feel that there is the potential for a great shot here, but this hasn't quite hit the mark. The processing is very dominant. The extreme desaturation leaves the image looking quite dirty. I feel it would have been better to go all the way to black and white rather than this, which seems to be neither colour nor mono. I think it would have also been great to find something vertical to include in the foreground to really emphasise the extreme angle of the landslip.

I had a little internal debate about this image. Undoubtedly dramatic and unusual it quickly caught my eye, but overall it wasnt quite compelling enough for me to award it. The otherwordly scene inside the glacier is stunning, but the image overall is a little murky looking. The blurred figure almost works, I like the idea of adding scale, but this almost reduces the sense of scale as he's quite large within the image. A wider lens or being further back if possible would have added more of a sense of size of the surroundings. I also feel the figure falls midway between deliberately blurred or just accidentally blurred. It still makes for a striking composition though.

I did like this shot, but couldn't shake the feeling it seemed slightly contrived. Often having eye contact with the subjects can help the viewer connect with the image, but in this instance I think it may have been more effective to have one of the children looking at the tree they were planting. This would have added more weight to the one that was looking at camera, whilst reinforcing the story of the picture. It's still a strong image though, and has a nice feeling of hope in it.

I loved the filmic quality to this shot, it could be a still taken straight from a movie. The sodium glow from the lights is really evocative, and the central placement of the figures grabs the attention really well. There is a slight confusion to the story though, with the figures dressed for snow, it suggests the city is more than used to harsh winter conditions, so the climate change message doesn't come through strongly enough for me to have placed it higher.