My hero

I just love this image. Everything about the young girl says innocence. The look on her face, the way she is dressed the way she is sitting, her hair in bunches all add to the feeling. I also get the feeling of total trust and absorption in what her hero is saying to her.

It is obviously a candid moment caught on the fly and the lighting adds to this, however, the white object in the bottom left corner is a distraction.

The strong eye contact between the pair and the position of the heads, with the child looking up intently reinforce the feeling of adoration of her hero.

In this image we have a wheelchair athlete in a race. The photographer has focussed on the face and arms of the athlete as they have panned through the shot and used a relatively slow shutter speed. This approach has blurred the background and given a sense of speed and danger from the movement of the wheels as well. Given that they have managed to keep the athletes face in focus in these circumstances really makes the shot for me and while I cannot see his eyes, his expression does not convey and concern adding to his hero status.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the emergency services and it is easy to understand why they are viewed as heroes. In this scene a fire fighter is "down" and we assume that they are injured, raising their heroic status even higher. The photographer has adopted a low point of view on the same level as the other firefighters, this allows us to see the intent look on their faces as they work on their downed colleague conveying a sense of urgency and concern.

The hero in this image is the antithesis of a clean cut "Superman" hero. The disheveled long hair, the tattoos, the nipple ring, the dirty nails are not characteristics you would list of a typical hero. The setting in a bar and the open bottle of beer again is not what you would normally associate with a childhood hero. Nonetheless the young boy has a look of total adoration on his face. The intimate eye contact, body language and position of the hands all reinforce the status of the hero for the young boy. An unusual yet captivating hero!

As a symbol of "My Hero" I think this image had a lot of potential. However, the hero takes up only a very small part of the overall image and for me this undermines his importance. Getting closer with a bigger lens would have been the obvious answer, so that the hero fills the frame enabling the viewer to see him in detail. However, I appreciate that bigger lenses are expensive and are not always an option in any case. In such a case I might have tried to use other compositional tools such as the leading lines helpfully provided by the track to reinforce the importance of the hero within the frame.

As I dog owner myself I know the adoration some pets can have for their human companions. I was very careful in wording the brief for this contest in the hope that there would be animal submissions, and I was not disappointed. Of all the animal submissions this one is a stand out for me, firstly it is a well taken portrait with bang on focussing. The use of black and white against the black backdrop serves to highlight the detail in the dog's face and the exposure in excellent. However, the thing that I liked best was the look on the dog's face and in particular the steadfast gaze of its left eye, if there was a canine sign language for hero worship, this would be it.

Before I even read the background detail on this image I had assumed it was a father reading to his son. They are both intently enjoying this experience and I'm left with the feeling that the father will be the sons hero for evermore for giving the gift of intimate shared moments like this. The lighting, setting and dress all add to the relaxed feel of the image and this is supported by spot on focussing and control of depth of field.

This is such a powerful image! It provokes so many questions for me, on so many levels and certainly puts our mundane problems into perspective. The profile view of his head with the cigar in his mouth and intent gaze add to his character, while the position of his torso starkly defines his injuries.

I get the sense this a candid moment and good use of depth of field, attentive focusing together with careful exposure ensures the subject stands out from his background.

This image tells a compelling story. Clearly there is the determined athlete who has obviously spent a long time training to reach this point and is understandably a hero for this. However, the photographer has taken a slightly wider view of the scene rather than focus solely on the athlete. This shows the viewer the extent of supporting apparatus the athlete needs just to compete. The orange straps at the bottom also serve to focus the viewer's attention upward back to the athlete. Finally, the glimpse of the wheelchair in the background hints at the adversity he encounters in his daily life.

This father/son moment has been excellently captured. Both the figures in this image are in sharp focus, this will have taken some skill as the child will be moving at some speed and a narrow depth of field has been used to blur out the background. The image works well in black and white and there is a good tonal range. I think it would have been as good in colour.

Given the height of the child, it is easy to imagine that he would have been scared, yet the look on his face is one of trust and joy, making direct eye contact with his dad. Clearly he has confidence in his hero catching him and is enjoying the moment.