Corners

A magnificent sense of scale, paired with a great use of tonal range and then plenty of negative space. This is the Dubai International Finance Centre, but shot in a truly unique way, and a lovely use of black and white. Adding figures to architectural imagery is useful to give the sense of the dimensions that one is looking at, and particularly important here where there is so little else to pin that sense of dimension on.

This shot made me so happy when I first saw it! Evidence in case you still need it that there are amazing images to be had everywhere you go, if you just use your feet and a bit of imagination. It also does what it says on the tin for this contest - it's a corner, and no mistake. That low viewpoint, the symmetricality (which I'm always a big fan of), a technically strong and sharp image where it matters, and a helping hand from whoever put the effort in to paint the fenceposts green. Love it!

Some shots just make you wish you were there, but also do such a good job of conveying the beauty of a scene that you get a pretty good secondhand experience of it anyway. The incredible colour range of this sunrise and its reflection steals the show, and manages to be both otherworldly but still believable. The careful arrangement of the other objects in the scene feel perfect to me, in particular the bird looking outwards, and that captivating tonal contrast at the horizon that holds the centre of the image. Truly well done!

This feels very like an Andreas Gursky creation. Beautifully composed, every element in just the right place, a sweeping scene with so much going on, and a cleanliness and tidiness to the shot that suggests (but I may be wrong) a good deal of careful retouching. Formula 1 is so familiar to us, but this offers an intriguing fan-focussed view of a race that is extremely novel.

A gorgeous interpretation of the brief, and very unlike any of the other 3000+ images that were submitted. The colours are sublime, the analytical mind is left guessing, as it should be, and the gradation from the brightest blue to the rich dark depths have been well handled in post processing.

There were a handful of drone shots entered into this competition, and pretty much all of them were very well done, a pleasure to look at, and got a Highly Commended award from me. Increasingly drone photography leaves me wishing that I had more time free so I could go and buy a drone and learn how to use it! I'm picking this one out for comment, as it spent the most amount of time hovering around my Top 10. I love the new views we're getting of our world from drone photography, and in this case there's so much to look at, not least the tops of buildings that were undoubtedly never designed to be seen by lots of people!

This gentle observation of shadows playing on a building corner was one that grew on me with repeated viewings,. and gradually worked its way into my Top 10. For me it embodies the way in which a photographer/artist looks more closely and quietly at the world than is usual in normal life.

A very interesting scene, in the style of Cartier-Bresson, shot from, above and that places all the elements of interest carefully in the scene. In this case I love that they are all placed around the edges and leave the centre empty. It's also obsessively carefully cropped, and I'm a big fan of that. The black and white treatment, combined with the rough edges suggest a single image that has gone straight from film camera into chemical trays, but as someone who has spent plenty of time observing people chaotically interacting within public spaces, I can't help but wonder whether we're looking at several images combined to produce the desired layout. If not... I doubly applaud you! But either way, it's a wonderful image.

I enjoyed the double relevance to this contest of this image - of the man sat in the corner of the room, and the image elements all being concentrated in the corner of the frame. It has an intriguing narrative within it, a beautiful tone and use of light, and lovely colours in the carpet that lift the image.

My winning image appeals first and foremost to my photographic eye, for it is a really beautiful and well observed scene, great balance in the broadly symmetrical composition, and a viewpoint of a mountain pass that one rarely sees, but you wonder why when you see it so artistically done here. It does also however tap into my second life as a cyclist, and I can't help imagine myself and friends, or a group of Tour de France contenders (two entirely mutually exclusive groups) hauling themselves round the bend and wondering if the top is near. Well done on this image, and for me a very deserving winner in a strong field.

I've looked at a lot of images looking up at skyscrapers in this contest, and many of them very impressive in terms of technical skill and awe inspiring scale. I'm highlighting this more lo-fi and retro view of the Shard as for me it has a little more originality about it. The Shard in London is very photographed, but I've not seen an image like this of it, and it makes great use of flash-lit snow to add a splash of real-life.

I'm not a bird photographer, and have little knowledge of the genre, but I certainly had a wow moment when I saw this image!It doubtless takes a lot of skill to set up and shoot something like this, but the kudos is shared here between the photographer and the plucky bird, darting at breakneck speed between shards of glass every few minutes. I felt that knocking back the brightness in the top and bottom quarter of the scene might bring the focus more onto our winged superhero, and so strengthen the image a little.

Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is now one of the most photographed buildings in the world, and a great example of how iconic, signature architecture can put a city on the map. Most views of it look up through its interlocking titanium structure, and are full of curves. I liked this shot because it is a much different view of the building, and it combines a human element that provides scale, with a lot more colour and interest for the eye than I've seen in other shots of it. Very well observed and delivered with technical and compositional skill.

What a stunning portrait of this Barbary Macaque monkey in Gibraltar. It has such a human pose, and the lighting creates an appealing effect which could almost make one think that it is a studio shot. The photographer has done a good job of keeping the bright blue sea and sky under control, so that they don't distract from and overwhelm the undisputed star of the show.