Looking Down

These hills, hillocks, ripples in the land seem to go on and on and on. Shot at the best time of day for such a landscape. F/11 is one of the favourite apertures. I love the variety of colours in the land and the detail in the foreground hills is striking. If there was a person on a horse there it would be something else. But really, well done.

I feel as though I've seen this shot before, I can't help love it. The curves of the staircase are just so incredibly beautiful. Shot with the centre bottom right in the centre of the frame, with an ISO of 1600 I wonder if the photographer held the camera by hand? I assume so, as it can be very difficult obtaining the right view using a tripod. Love the light, atmosphere and lines.

I feel jealous every time I see a great drone shot, as I don't have one to use! The world opens up with a whole load more visible opportunities to shoot. here the photographer has made a great image of a simple road feature cutting diagonally through the image. Again, nice work keeping it at 100 ISO, and you must have kept the drone still for a 1/30th of a sec. Lovely light and colour and variety of the trees.

Fun, fun, fun. A great image of a moment in time, following what I feel this brief is all about. Looking down doesn't need to be from a great height. it can be any height. A little girl taking a nap, with someone having created a bed out of simple plastic outdoor chairs. The dappled light through trees and shade. Taken using a phone, sometimes provides an image that you will never forget. Nice moment, great shot.

Love the space in this shot, that if it was to be used in a publication would allow for lots of text. The blues and aquas of the water, and the orange of the kayaks go great together. But I like the story it is telling, of the kayakers going out into the sea one by one.

Another Hasselblad shot, clearly a piece of kit to be reckoned with. The detail in the waves and surf is just awesome, and again the space and simplicity creates a graphic view of our world looking straight down. The single figure almost feels like a nail piercing the picture and right in the middle of the beach. Is the person the photographer??? Love it.

There were so many staircase images submitted in this competition, but many didn't have the same vibe of colours and energy as this shot. The angle it has been taken at puts the bannister become the focal attention taking over from the steps behind until it gets to the lower levels. Great focal depth and like how the bannister finishes right at the corner of the shot. Really nicely done.

The detail, light, sharpness of this shot, struck me when I first saw it. The pinks of the leaf against the brown is just great. The veins and the raindrops very crisp. Like the F/4 use as it knocks out the detail around the edge of the frame to allow the leaf to grab your attention.

One of my favourite shots in the competition as it is a fun, graphic, and well worked out view that you don't normally see. Shutter speed of 1/1000 to be able to capture the riders whilst riding, as this needs to be sharp to work. Even more interesting and clever is that this image can be used any way round you place it. X4 versions for the price of one. Truly magic.

Again, a clever use of a phone camera, looking straight down to the boy who is directly in the centre, half covered half not by the sea's surf. The red trunks help with the light blue of the water. This shot stood out for me because how paper-like the foamy surf envelopes the boy. Feels fake, but it isn't, and I love the background story of repeating the moment each time they visit the beach.

Even though this view is taken of a puddle, essentially, it doesn't feel like it is. The leaves feel like some of them are floating around in a breeze, and not laying on the ground, with clouds which are the concrete, and the reflection of trees which look like the actual trees. All very confusing, but works a treat. Another phone capture, which works perfectly to get shots like this as it's in your back pocket.

Like something from another planet, this weed fills the frame perfectly. The gritty sand is so very graphic it makes the weed really stand out. There are no camera / capture details, so can't comment on that. The organ coloured parts of the weed look like fingers and the central part looks like a wishbone. Love the balance, simplicity and graphic nature to this shot.

This shot certainly is powerful with the surfer escaping that impressive wave. It's got great energy and shooting on 1/4000th of a sec every bit is frozen. Keeping the ISO low keeps that quality high too, so a great shot. Again, this image would work well with text on a page due to space. It's nature at its best. Great work.

This needed to be awarded as a decent shot. Great the photographer can get everything sharp, and get a fish in there too. The competition's brief was 'looking down' and this really is just that. Standing on frozen water seeing what is below and finding a perfect view to shoot. Additionally, the photographer must have been freezing themselves when taking the shot, so congrats for sticking at it.

A number of views of this bend were submitted, but I felt this won that mini comp, just due to the fact that the sunlight peered under the cloud in an evening, as it so often does for those couple of mins. When it does, that light becomes perfect to shoot in. F/22 grabbed everything in focus, and the lens wasn't too crazy fisheye. I like the fact that you can see land at the bottom of the shot too, so the whole curve of the river is captured. A great shot.

This view has everything - interesting landscape that makes you intrigued, great sunset light and mist too. Clearly shot using an amazing drone camera, perfect for low level lighting. Great that the photographer could keep the ISO so low given the evening light. Great work.

I'm not usually too fussed about night photography of a cityscape, as they are a much of a muchness some of the time. But this shot was very good for me. It has great balance, taken at the perfect evening time, and not too dark, 30 second exposure, and this makes the road system look like spaghetti below. Nice aperture used. The image looks a little low res when zooming in, so you might need to supply higher res files next time?