Dynamic

This is so good. The photographer has used a long exposure with a split second of flash, triggered by the sound of an airgun firing a pellet at a water balloon. It is, admittedly, a shot that's been done before, but this attempt is so technically accomplished and beautifully executed that I don't care. It's safe to say that the photographer was mopping up plenty of water in their efforts to get this shot, so it's good to see such a satisfyingly energetic result.

This shot produces lots of unanswered questions. Who is she blowing confetti towards? Why is her identity hidden? How long did it take to clean up after this shot? This frame is so nicely lit: the skin tones are exactly right without being burnt, and there's plenty of detail in the confetti as it flies towards the camera. The result is exciting and dramatic. And while I'm not sure that the shot has that much to say ("confetti's awesome!", perhaps?) it doesn't really matter when the frame is so nicely planned and executed.

This is such a well-planned, well-executed image. The ultra wide-angle lens is exactly right for the job, and the long exposure feels marvellously kinetic without allowing our two busy subjects to end up blurred. It will come as no surprise that this competition saw photographers enter more than their fair share of light trail shots, so it's very satisfying to see a dramatic variation on a clichéd theme – the photographer has capitalised on unique access to produce a unique image.

I realise that the top two images here are grainy, high-contrast black and white, but when they're both so packed with drama and tension they're hard to ignore. The lines in this frame are so strong: the curve of the hose and the straight jet of water, the plumes of smoke and the precariousness of the firefighters feels dangerous. Which is, without more information on the situation, a good time to say it's to be hoped the fire was extinguished with no casualties. A brilliant documentary image.

The caption supplied by the photographer says direct flash is banned by the organisation, but the light in this flash looks pretty direct to me. Fortunately I'm not the guy in shiny pants getting booted in the face, so I don't care - this is such an impactful, energetic, well-timed shot. It captures a very kinetic moment so beautifully, and I think the direct flash adds a sort of jocular, low-rent finish to the shot that works really well. This looks like it should be part of a documentary series.

This is a really impressive frame. It's made by the light source, which adds a really important burst of colour to the shot, and it's also where all the action and movement come from. The composition is really neat: the giant tongs lead your eye across the image, and the pose of the worker is bang-on, which isn't bad going for a frame that lasted a lifetime – an entire quarter of a second according to the EXIF. A lovely travel image.

I absolutely bloody love this image. It's a rarity to see an image that answers the brief so perfectly, but at the same time is scintillatingly still. It's suspenseful, dramatic, perfectly frozen and absolutely packed with potential energy. I love the subtle, soft light and I really like the high contrast between the very dark subject and the light grey background. The composition is incredibly strong and for what it's worth I also love the pencil-straight pose of the subject, although I'm not sure we can give the photographer credit for that. We can give the photographer credit for pretty much everything else, though.

Blimey. It's a woman who truly understands their partner's obsession with photography that allows a DSLR in the delivery room. This shot, its timing, and its composition (look at that exactly centered hand!) is lovely, and the thrusting forearm of junior gives the shot plenty of energy. There's loads to love technically as well: a glance at the EXIF reveals this was shot with an f/1.4 lens. That's why depth of field is so precise (hardly ANYTHING in this image is in focus except the subject), but super-fast lenses are very difficult to focus right. The photographer's done brilliantly to produce a once in a lifetime image.

This competition saw SO MANY LIGHT TRAIL PICTURES. Flying sparks were the order of the day for plenty of photographers, but few grasped that a bit of foreground interest would make the difference between a shot worth stopping at and one that blended into the pile. This is a really lovely shot: I love how the light in the background silhouettes the figure in the middle and illuminates a really interesting industrial foreground. I also notice that this shot was made in Wales, which means the photographer was probably dodging driving rain at the time...

This image is absolutely frenzied and I'm completely in love with it. It captures perfectly the experience prey has of leopards: a blur in the dark, a half-seen predator with big teeth and glowing eyes. This shot is all about the feeling, and while this shot could obviously be sharper, it would lose so much of its emotion and make the resulting photo so much less interesting. There's an interesting question around whether the photographer meant to do this – if they did they've produced a fantastically brave, emotive image of a spectacular animal. But even if they didn't this is still a marvellous shot.

This image is a really good idea and a nice variation on the whole "flying sparks" image. Taking over a whole building is really impactful. The slight problems are that I'm not really sure if this image tells a really strong story – it's technically accomplished and the photographer has done well to nail the focus in the dark – but what's actually happening? The other slight problem is the edge halo along the edges of the building. A slightly more gentle hand on the sharpening sliders might help.

This is a picture with so much potential - it certainly looks like an incredibly dramatic, if possibly fairly dangerous, event. The composition is pretty nice, although I slightly wish the first chap's legs hadn't been cut off and perhaps the bright LED lights in the top-right could go. More than that I'd have sacrificed the dramatic fire trails in favour of a faster shutter speed and a bit more sharpness. It's horses for courses, naturally, but sharper subjects might mean the human story here comes across just a tad better.

This location has loads of potential for impactful, long exposure shots – I hope the photographer gets more opportunities to go back because it's going to be great for practicing. This particular shot could stand to spend a few seconds longer in post-production to get the brightness up a notch or two, and a little more saturation might not go amiss. My OCD is twinging slightly at the cut-off logo in the top left-hand corner, and I'd be quite interested to see a few more positions from this same location. A really promising start.

This is such a great idea for a photograph. Willing energetic subjects in an iconic location and a really well timed shot. This is a good one. If it were my shot I would have a short wish list of things, mind. I might try to get the horizon square, and I'd be a bit annoyed that the vertical pillars had been cut off. More than anything, though, I'd stick in a bit more ISO to get the shutter speed up. When a subject's in mid-air it doesn't really need motion blur to give it energy, so an extra stop or so of shutter speed, aided by a bit more ISO, might make this shot a bit more impactful.