Cycling

A very classical, black and white image. This would be great with one bike, but it's even better with two going in different directions to each other. The composition is beautifully balanced and there is enough thought-provoking content to make you think about the picture. They seem to be riding on these pathways but the foreground rider appears to be riding off it. It has technically beautiful tones, all the way from black to highlight, and it's very sharp. An ageless and timeless picture.

There are lots of cycling photos in this competition where the photographer has panned and had a blurred background, but for me this one is a little different because what you really see is the intense colour and the unusual blue background of what looks like a bus or train. I love the intensity and brightness of the colour - it shows that when you have an action/moving shot, technical things like sharpness are not necessarily the key requirement, and that the blur adds to the emotion.

This is one of my favourite cycle racing pictures in the contest. It puts you into the riders’ points of view, and that I believe makes a good sports picture. These are two sprint track cyclists playing cat and mouse and it shows the advantage of the rider in the background. It also shows the tension between the two riders. It may not be the most artistic of the entries, but the story is very strong and it catches the perfect moment in time – just before one rider takes the initiative and sprints for the line.

This photo is the clear winner for me. What I like the most is that there's no technical criticism or anything you can really talk about with a shot like this - it's all about feeling. Although there is colour in the image, it's effectively mono and there's very little else in terms of information. But your mind makes up for the mystery and fills in the gaps - your imagination is allowed to run wild, and this all adds to the photo. A beautiful image.

There were a couple of images like this in the contest, and there is a very thin line between them. They were always going to be strong and popular images – the many things that make them so good include the iconic, high-altitude mountain biking sunset. These images have it all. The one that was in the top 10 had the edge as it puts the viewer more into the scene, and gives you more of the feeling of adrenaline associated with riding on a ridge.

I love this image because for me this is my passion – cycling across country into the distance in a group like cowboys in a wild west film. With the dark skies and drama just on the horizon, it leaves you to simply imagine what’s to come. It makes you want to be there. I love the colour and tone and the way that some of the riders are a silhouette on the lip, with small subjects and a big scene. Great effort.

This is a really nice, dramatic action picture, not just showing a rider and bike in the race, but also showing the texture of the environment by putting the camera on the ground. It makes it far more dynamic, and I love the way the photographer has used black and white to enrich the image. It’s a nice composition with the rider slightly off to the left. In an ideal world, the only thing you could add to this would be the spray of mud or water to heighten the action within the image.

A very beautiful picture with perfect composition. and not only is it a simple and delicate image, but it also makes you think how dangerous it would be to ride your bike in that environment. It was a difficult decision to not put it in the Top 10, but I knew that it would get the crowd attention. My view is that a very subtle conversion to black and white would simply make it even better, but make sure that such a conversion does not to go too contrasty to keep some of those fantastic shadow details in.

This one would be easily in my top three if it wasn't for one thing. I love the way the silhouette of the cyclist is lined up with the top of the doors, and how the figure blends in with the 'A'. It is a beautifully composed shot and not something that can be repeated very easily. However, unfortunately the photographer has tried to remove something just above the 'D', and has used a cloning or healing tool badly. Although they have removed what they have thought was ruining the shot, the picture is definitely strong enough for me to suggest they go back and do it properly to make this truly great.

This is not necessarily the most creative or aesthetically pleasing but it is still a very humorous picture thanks to the inclusion of the rider/voyeur’s stance. The composition is spot on, again with a very strong story for you to decide on for yourself. Keeping it black and white was a good choice as it simplifies the image and helps convey the message. It could be improved dramatically by cropping almost a quarter of the bottom of the image, which would considerably tidy things up.

Technically, not the best picture but it’s one of those photographs that happens once in a blue moon, where the photographer, I assume, simply found themselves in the right place at the right time and caught this fun image. Sometimes you don’t notice these things until after you’ve taken the picture, but it’s a great skill to see a surrounding and speculate what could happen next - usually what distinguishes a great street photographer over an average one. It might be worth looking at it in black and white to see if it simplifies the photo.

A great black and white reportage image made good by the smiling faces, framed by an out-of-focus onlooker which tells a story we can only imagine. It’s great to see people riding bicycles and smiling, especially officials who could be on (or off) duty! It’s a great image promoting the fun of riding on two wheels. Technically, this is not an easy thing to get sharp and you could possible crop in a fraction to tighten the whole frame up.

As a cycling/sport picture, I love it. It’s right in the action and shows the intensity of riding in a peloton. However, the photographer has actually put the riders in danger by taking up some of the road and forcing the riders to make an evasive action. In cycling photography this is a big no no because if everybody did it they would ban photography at these events, which would be a great shame. There are ways of getting shots like this without causing such danger.

I love the humour in this picture, the fact that the rider is doing a wheelie over a ‘no cycling’ warning. I also like the variety in seeing a still background and a blurred subject - it helps tell the story in a much clearer and graphic way. Because it is shot on a very wide lens, it has a lot of barrel distortion. These days that can be corrected a little with software such as Photoshop, and that could improve the overall result.