Extreme speed

Ironically – given what we pros like to bang on about when boring amateur photographers – a lot of the most interesting images in this competition were very blurry ones. The right amount of blurriness gives a real sensation of speed, and for that reason, a lot of technically-fine, sharp images found themselves trailing behind dynamic images with just the right amount of sharpness and blurriness.

So what's this cracker of a shot doing top of the pops? Energy. The totally unanchored rider and machine hang in the air, and I love – love – the trail of snow trailing like glitter behind both. The lighting brings out the subjects but underexposes the background, and I really like the composition – I'm not one for carping on about the rule of thirds every chance I get, but here, where the subjects have space to zoom across the frame, it really, really works.

Well there weren't a lot of pilots' eye views in this competition, I can tell you that much. I really like the ethereal, cool colours of this shot, as well as the way the Earth, flashing past below, is offset by the remarkably clear skies above. The passing aircraft above finishes things off beautifully.

What I find interesting about this image is, even at 1/4,000th of a second, there's still just the tiniest amount of blur down the length of both wings. This is a really tricky shot to get: you can see how the depth of field only really comes in where the bird's beak meets its head, and by the time you reach its feet, the sharpness is starting to go again. So getting rid of the motion blur is tricky, getting the image sharp another ballgame entirely. Great shot; and I love the background.

The nature of this competition meant I saw a lot of the following things: motorcars. Motorbikes. The Red Arrows. All great subjects that lend themselves to great images, but this ballsy interpretation of Extreme Speed really works for me. I like the sharp horizontal lines, and I like the colours. The pale blue at the top is nicely set off by the skeletal trees flashing past, and I like the yellow/green/yellow stripes at the bottom. The composition – intentionally or not – kind of echoes Andreas Gursky's Rhine II. An unusual and creative shot that needs to go on the wall pronto.

I like so much about this image. The noisy, grainy treatment, the subject, the smoke coming off the tyres, the way the car is positioned all the way to the edge of the frame, straining to get out of the shot. It's energetic, impactful, fun and dramatic. I'd love to see it without the isolated colour.

There was a lot – a LOT – of motorsport entered into this competition, and a lot of it was either pin-sharp, and therefore a bit flat, or totally blurred. This image sits so beautifully in the sweet spot: a lovely sharp subject, whizzing past a gorgeously soft, blurry background. The matching colours help enormously. I'd love to see what happened if the image was straightened up, although I like the squiffy composition as it is.

On my workshops for London Zoo, the last thing I like to challenge my photographers with is a sharp shot of the Humboldt penguins "porpoising" – launching themselves in and out of the water. It's as close as the little blighters get to flying. It's really difficult: timing your shutter release to catch a penguin cresting out of the wet stuff, maintaining your autofocus on a subject that's hidden beneath the waves: it's lovely when, as in this shot, it all comes together.