The colour brown

This was my favorite image of the competition. I'm so accustomed to seeing macro images in which everything is sharp, especially now that focus stacking is so easy. This image let go of the idea of sharpness, and instead portrayed the essence of the spider in an almost abstract way. The shortcomings of the lens used (e.g color fringing and distortion) actually add to the overall appeal for me. And the alignment of the legs and silk in the frame make a really dynamic composition.

I didn't award many images of people in this competition. I saw a lot of what I considered very ordinary images that just happened to include people with brown skin. But this image immediately captured my attention. The eye contact from the older boy was riveting. The exposure in his face, even in the areas shaded by his hood, is perfect. And I find the contrast between the older boy's confidence and the younger boy's apprehension to be very compelling.

I loved this image from the second I saw it. I immediately started trying to figure out how the effect was achieved. I think the photographer probably had the camera mounted on a tripod or monopod, facing his feet, and was spinning around in the leaves. Am I right? In any case, the smartly dressed legs + feet provide a nice focal point for this swirling composition. I appreciate that the feet aren't dead-center in the composition, but instead slightly above the midline to give plenty of room for the real stars of the show -- the swirling leaves.

This image was tricky. When I saw the thumbnail, I immediately thought I would place it in my top 10 -- I loved just seeing the eyes and ears of the deer peeking out over the field of wheat. The strong colors are great too. Viewed at full size, however, I found that the sharpest part of the image wasn't the deer themselves, but the grain several feet in front of them. If the deer had been perfectly sharp, this image would have been a strong contender for my top 10, simply because it's such a great moment captured.

There were several variants on this theme in the competition -- paths through the woods, with fallen leaves on the ground. This one was my favorite of the bunch. I loved the pastel color palette of the image. It's just a beautiful scene. It makes me want to be there! There was one element of the scene that I found distracting, however: the branch in the top center of the frame. Against the soft green backdrop of leaves, that branch was very obvious, and I found my eye being drawn to that branch again and again. By moving forward a bit, the photographer probably could have kept that branch out of the frame.

This image has a lot of great elements working for it. The children are clearly very absorbed in their performance. I like that they seem more interested in their performance than in the photographer. The wide-angle perspective works really well in this shot, revealing the crater behind the children. There's some very interesting weather developing behind the children. And I love the composition, with the kids off to the side. Normally I might prefer a slightly lower perspective, with the photographer shooting at the children's eye level. But in this case, the higher perspective works well to reveal the landscape behind them.

This image didn't quite make the top 10, primarily because I thought the composition could be improved by including the entirety of the closest fungus in the lower left. But I love the mix of colors in this shot. I think the depth of field is perfect - you can see what's in the background, but it's soft enough that it doesn't distract from the fungi. And the perspective of the shot - looking straight down - is very unique.

This was an image that immediately made me smile. But it didn't make my final cut into the "Commended" images because of the composition. I really wanted to see the rest of the meerkat! Framing this shot a little bit lower would have included the meerkat's hindquarters in the shot. I love the facial expression and pose here - there's a lot going for this shot. With a little tweak to the composition, it could have been a winner!

This shot came close to the Commended category. I really liked the figure in brown, blurred against the brown wall in the background. I think that alone would have made a great shot. In the image as captured, I'm not quite sure where in the shot to look. There are two figures doing two different things, and the bike actually looks like the sharpest object in the frame. There are elements in this shot that I found really interesting, but also some elements that distracted me from them.

I liked this image as soon as I saw it. It's a very interesting space, with some dramatic moody lighting contributing to the overall atmosphere. Then my eyes were drawn to the upper right, where there appear to be some placards, perhaps explaining the scene. I suppose this is a historical recreation of a scene - not at all a problem, in and of itself. But including those interpretive placards in the frame took me out of the moment. Framing a little farther to the left would have made it a stronger image for me.

This image came close to my top 10. It's a very interesting space, with the curved ceiling, different styles of brick, and paint, and there are some great textures throughout the image. I think the photographer handled some tricky light very well, preserving detail in the shadows and highlights of the image despite the extreme contrast. The two light sources are well placed in the composition, and the soft shadows they cast around the room provide a lot of depth to the image.

This image earned 3rd place from me because of a few very interesting juxtapositions in the same shot. First, you've got the razor-sharp foreground of beautiful autumn leaves and moss, contrasting with the motion-blurred branches and figure in the path. Second, you've got the moody, foggy light in the distance, contrasting with the beams of light illuminating the foreground leaves. Finally, the solid figure of the foreground tree contrasting with the ghostly figure walking in the path. A really beautiful, haunting image.

This is a nice image. It's a strong composition with some very nice light, and it fits the competition theme perfectly. The exposure did a very nice job of preserving detail in the shadows, but the highlights on a couple of the trees suffered as a result. This might have been a situation where a double exposure, or a double-processed RAW file, could have saved the day and preserved highlight and shadow detail in spite of the extreme contrast in the scene.

With the theme 'The colour brown', there were lots of pet images in this competition! This was one of my favorites. It's a very cute dog, of course. But what I loved about this one is how well the light is controlled. There's nice, soft light on the dog's face and paws (based on the reflections in the dog's eyes, it looks like the light is coming from a window). But in the background, you get a complete fall-off to black. I also like the exaggerated perspective caused by the wide-angle lens. Most pet (and people) portraits are captured with longer lenses, so that made this one stand out.

This one came close to the Commended category. It's a very nice portrait of the horse. The composition is strong, with the horse's eyes in the upper third of the frame, and the subject slightly offset to the right to give the wind-blown mane plenty of room in the frame. I also like the dreamy, almost Orton-like quality to the shot. Overall, strong work! There was nothing I found objectionable about this shot, but also nothing about it that grabbed me and said "you must give this one an award!"