Pin-sharp

Henrik's done a fantastic job at capturing a brilliant moment between these two Alpine marmots. His low angle works well, getting eye level with his two subjects for a more intimate angle which also helps blur the background into a stunning wash of blue. His focus on the marmot's eyes is spot-on and a wide aperture provides a shallow depth-of-field to ensure they're the main focal point of the image. His off-centre composition also works well and the use of a 1/1250 sec shutter speed has ensured no subject blur or camera-shake has crept into shot.

Wayne's captured an incredible portrait here with fantastic, dramatic lighting, excellent costume and props as well as a steely stare from his sitter. Using flash has allowed him to freeze the moment and his use of an aperture of f/11 has rendered every detail in sharp focus. Great job!

Shooting in a studio with flash is a great way to freeze a moment in time and eliminate any camera shake or subject blur and that's worked remarkably well for Tony with his image 'Red Queen'. We love the elaborate Game of Thrones inspired outfit, with amazing details and splashes of vibrant red throughout to draw the eye in. He's made sure to focus on his model's eyes to make sure these are totally sharp and used an aperture of f/8 to a deep depth of field too. Great job!

Anghelos has captured a fantastic portrait here with an eye catching stare and bold red colours in the head scarf that instantly pull the viewer in. It's minimalist, striking and wonderfully sharp too, focusing on the eyes masterfully. Great job!

Guilio's captured a fantastic portrait here and his conversion to black and white works wonders, with amazing contrast, lighting and depth. It's super sharp too, making it a great fit for our Top 10 this month. His aperture of f/9 is a great choice and must be the 'sweet spot' of his 70-200mm lens as it's come out looking razor sharp. His decision to raise the ISO to 320 was also expertly done, allowing him to shoot at 1/500 sec which has been fast enough to eliminate hand-held camera shake and any subject blur. Great job!

Caroline's caught a wonderful portrait here of a little girl eating a strawberry. She's used a wide aperture of f/3.2 which has provided the perfect amount of sharpness for her face and makes the eyes nicely focused with the background falling off into a lovely blur. Great job!

Jacquie's caught an incredible moment of a bald eagle here with it's incredible brown and white feathers, piercing stare and mid-squark too! She's expertly used a long focal length to get a frame-filling shot of the eagle's head and waited for the precise moment it had it's mouth open to take this fantastic action shot. The eyes are perfectly in focus and her use of a fast shutter speed has eliminated any camera shake or subject blur. Great job!

Andy's captured some fantastic details in the seal's fur in this wonderful animal portrait. His use of a shutter speed of 1/800 sec has been fast enough to eliminate camera shake and subject blur, while his aperture choice of f/5.6 has been enough to get the seal perfectly sharp and blur the background nicely too. Great job!

Dominic's been able to capture a fantastic portrait of his sitter Graham here despite taking it in the pandemic lockdowns and therefore shooting remotely. It's a wonderfully simple and effective portrait with an eye-catching pose and great wardrobe from Graham, as well as the lighting which gives this shot a classic and stylish vibe. Great job!

Heather's caught a wonderful portrait of these two twin brothers. It's an incredibly creative and interesting composition with the symmetry between both identical boys. She's chosen to focus on their eyes to make them the focal point and used a wide aperture of f/2 to blur the rest of the image masterfully. Great job!

Chris has taken a fantastic capture of this kingfisher in a brilliant pose where it's iridescent blues are show off beautifully against a clean and vibrant green background. He's used a 400mm lens to get in closely for a frame-filling composition and focused on it's eye to make sure it was perfectly in-focus.

This is a wonderful photo from Chris who took this lovely shot of two logger duck chicks on the Falkland Islands. He's used a long lens to ensure a frame-filling shot of the two chicks and an aperture of f/7.1 was perfect for showing all of their fine details but shallow enough to blur the background nicely. Great job!

What an incredible portrait from Nguyen! The two shades of eye colour are visually arresting and almost looks like a colour pop with Nguyen's muted colour palette in post processing. He's made sure those beautiful eyes are pin-sharp and he's done a great job of getting his model to pose in an interesting way with her hands on her chin and headscarf around the edges of the frame to add extra detail and depth. Great job!