Purple

This image stood out for me as soon as I saw it, and it was the first into my top ten selection and remained at the top throughout. I am finding it difficult to quite put my finger on exactly why it works so well for me, other than I know I love it!. The composition is uncluttered, and whilst the selection of objects in the scene are fairly incongruous, they seem somehow to fit well together. The small aperture has kept focus adequately sharp throughout and we can see lots of lovely little details on the petals and urchins. In editing, I think you have judged the application of the matte type finish perfectly, as it has given the image a subdued softness with lovely muted shades, but the lighting and colours are just strong enough to reveal themselves. A beautifully delicate still-life study, congratulations on your winning image.

I deliberated for a while with this image, but in the end decided it should be placed. If anything, for my personal taste the processing is maybe a little over-stylised, and it would be interesting to see the image with the clouds a little softer/less sharpened and less saturated with the purple colouration. However, this is obviously a quality image. The small aperture has ensured everything is sharp from front to back and the wide angle lens has been used effectively too. There is little distortion as can often result from photographing with such a lens, but we have the added bonus of strong foreground interest displayed both on the lower and upper parts of the image. Maybe not in a style to suit everyone's taste, but it gives drama and a great sense of place, and I just wonder how long you had to grab your gear and run before the storm reached you!! Great work, well done.

This was a late addition to my top ten, but one I kept coming back to. Taken in what looks to be a lovely location, I imagine the same image photographed just a couple of hours later would have looked quite ordinary and unremarkable. Your early morning jaunt paid off, and you were wise to recognise you needed to pause your journey then, rather than visit later in the day as planned. The strength of the shot is aided by a low viewpoint which gives some good foreground interest in the tussocky grass, and the path sweeps us round to the water and church. A fine image with a lovely mood of gentleness and calm. Well done.

This image has good potential for a simple, graphic architectural detail shot. With such an image however, the shot can usually be greatly improved by having the vertical lines fully vertical. When capturing a scene such as this, it is usually beneficial to stand exactly centrally to the subject, which will keep the horizontals level. Then in editing afterwards, you can try to straighten the uprights either through an automatic straightening command, or pulling out the perspectives of the image at the top until the window is fully square. It would be worth experimenting with this if you can, as it can make a big difference to the impact of the shot. Good luck.

Whilst they can be beautiful, I sometimes tend to find "lone tree" shots rather clichéd and often a little too perfect, and therefore do not capture my attention. I think where this one is a little different for me is by the added element of the contrasting colour coming from the lighting in the settlement across the lake. The warmth in colours there add that much needed pop of contrast to make the image that little bit more interesting, and also more realistic. Nicely composed, the shape of the tree allows for its central position within the frame, as the curve of the truck avoids the central line being too harsh in a landscape image. Well done on your top ten finish.

This image is all about the atmosphere you have managed to capture, with the mist in the trees diffusing the light to create a mysterious softness. The horizon line has been unusually placed across the centre of the shot, but that works here, because it is not sharply defined, and it allows equal weight to be given to the purple heather in the foreground and the trees disappearing into the mist beyond. The type of weather conditions many would dismiss as being poor for photography, you have realised the potential and captured a great woodland scene. Lovely.

Another great image where the time of day you chose to visit was critical - this would make a nice picture in the middle of the day, but more a pretty record shot that a beautiful artistic image. I like how the varying harsh angles presented by the architecture contrast with the calmness of the sky and water. Blending the two images was a great idea, as the lamps add a little bit more to the shot. Very atmospheric, I can almost smell the calm of the evening and imagine I was there. Lovely image, well done.

There were many images entered of flowers and insects, but this one I really liked and commend you for your capture at just the right time with the bee heading directly towards the camera. Whilst I am sure the little fellow was a friendly creature, the way you have captured the insect charmingly shows that he means business and is on a mission, hopefully heading for the next flower on which to feed, and not you! Lovely capture.

This image was close to being placed, as the striking simplicity of the composition and the shade of purple you have selected for the image is lovely. What just lets the image down for me is the obvious repeat of sections of the image to expand the width of the shot. I do not have a problem with adding to images in this way to improve the composition in an abstract, graphic image such as this, when possible obstructions may have been present at the point of capture to get the shot as you had visualised. However, the human eye is very good at spotting repeat patterns, and to me the repeated details and horizontally reflected elements on the wall on both the left and right are obvious and prove distracting. These should be relatively easy to correct with further editing, by use of a small clone brush to clone over several of the small details in the repeated section to break up any duplicates, especially those areas with more recognisable details. Otherwise a nicely constructed image.

For me this image had a strong initial impact. On closer inspection, there could possibly be some slightly neater editing (I suspect the colour has been altered, and there are some areas on the wall, step and number plate which have some stray/unnatural colouring). However, the initial impact won me over, and I feel the image deserves to be placed. For anyone reading the "rule books" of photography, this image should not work ....... but for me it does! For a street scene there is no action, the car is chopped in half, and the doorway is partly cropped too. However, those elements add to the composition for me, rather than detract. We are being shown just a glimpse of the street, and through the continuation of the subjects beyond the frame, we know something will be happening there too - it is up to our imagination to decide what. Whilst I imagine the purple has been added for this contest, it is a gorgeous shade, and works well with the white of the car. There are some great textures to explore across the scene, and it takes a good photographic eye of the photographer to present such a mundane scene which is able to hold the viewers attention while they explore the image. Well done on your top ten placing.

There were hundreds of entries of flowers in this contest, and this was one of my favourites. The crowd often tend to rate the eye-catching images of flowers which are placed onto a black background, and I can understand the appeal of those, as done well, they can make a bold statement. Here however, I really like the lightness and delicacy of the shot, which reflects the true nature of the subject. In your description you say how you struggled with focus and control of the depth of field with the macro conversion diopter, but I think you have done especially well with this subject. We can see lovely detail towards the very centre of the flower, with the other structures attractively falling away our of focus from the focal point. Beautiful natural colours too in this light, delicate image. Well captured.

I love the atmosphere of light airy freshness that this image brings, captured in the early morning mists before the sun breaks through to disturb the atmosphere. From your description, it sounds like you had been visualising this image for a while, and your were able to capture the imagined scene when all the components of the season and weather came together. Some may consider the image a little on the over-exposed side, but there are no areas of burnt highlights, and I like mood the lightness adds. Lovely contrast between the gentle purples and greens too. Great image, well done on your top three placing.

It is always nice to come across a field of lavender, and try to capture the beauty of the scene. I am not sure the tents in the mid-distance add to the scene, and you may have been able to avoid their dominance if you had shot on a wider aperture, from a lower viewpoint with focus on the near lavender, rather than the mid-distance. Another way this image could perhaps be improved would in my view be by cropping off the sky entirely, as the tiny strip of bright sky adds nothing, and possibly even distracts the eye from the lovely lavender. I often find a landscape image with the land filling the entire frame can be very appealing - sky is often unnecessary if it adds nothing. Still a great find, and if you revisit the farm, it would be worth experimenting with varying view points and focal points to see what different shots you can come away with from the same location.

There is a great shot hiding somewhere behind this image, and I am slightly puzzled over your composition choice, with such a strong compositional feature as the rotting jetty uprights being on the edge of the frame. You have gone to a lot of effort with the shot, setting up an extremely long exposure which has created a lovely effect in the sky and water. Maybe you have some other shots from this location taken from a slightly different viewpoint, but if it is a spot local to you which you can revisit, I would suggest using the old wooden structure as a compositional lead in line, positioning it either directly centrally, or on the right or left third lines to invite the viewer into the scene. That way the viewer will be drawn into the image, rather than have the eye wandering out of the frame on the right, wondering what they are missing. In the main a lovely image, let down a little in my opinion by the composition and framing.

Simple architectural images such as this can be very striking and effective, and you have spotted the potential for such an image. With this shot however, I think there is room for it to be improved just with the exposure of the shot. I would imaging the image was taken with the camera in full auto-mode, and as a result of a dominance of white in the scene, the camera has been tricked and tries to balance this by, falsely, underexposing for the white. This is very similar to what can happen when photographing crisp white snow, and the camera producing photo of dull grey snow instead, due to automatic application of under-exposure. This is relatively easy to correct, either at the time of capture by dialing in some positive exposure compensation, of afterwards in editing by adding more exposure to brighten the scene. Here, that should return the white walls to white, and also show the purple window in a brighter, bolder colour too. If you can, it would be worth experimenting with a simple edit of this image, which will probably give it a real lift. Great potential, but probable evidence that the camera's auto exposure does not always get it right.

This portrait image has great potential, but I find where the model's eyes are focused a little distracting. She is neither looking at the camera, nor gazing wistfully into the distance, or focusing on an obvious subject close to her. It almost seems as though you are taking a photograph of someone else's model, who was looking at their camera instead, or she has been momentarily distracted by something out of shot. I am sure that was not the case, and hopefully you will have captured a good number of shots from this photo shoot, which have the model focused on your camera too - I am sure that would have improved an otherwise skillfully captured portrait.

There is something very appealing about this image, captured from behind what looks to be a delightfully stylish older lady. She obviously stood out to you from the passing crowd and you were able to spot her and capture this image. Where I think this image could be further improved is in the colour saturation of the background. I would suggest slightly reducing the saturation of the reds, as the jacket of the figure on the left is especially distracting. If the reds were toned down slightly, more focus would be placed on your subject. A well seen street capture.

This is a lovely still life composition, nicely lit from the side to allow some great details and textures to be viewed. To improve the image further, I think I would be tempted to leave a little more space around the subject, as at the moment it looks a little too tightly cropped. It is a fine balance between having a subject look slightly hemmed in, or lost in vast empty space, but I think here just a small amount of additional "breathing" space around the top and sides would add to the success of the shot. Still a great still life shot.

I really like the mood you have captured here, with the gentle morning mists and light on what looks to be a chilly autumn day. Being critical, where I think the shot could have been improved further would be by adopting a slightly different viewpoint, to avoid the tree being quite so centrally placed and blocking a large part of the nearest building. It would have been interesting to have seen this scene captured from a couple of paces to the left, and from a much lower point of view. This would have in effect raised the tree to give more height differential of the subjects in the image, and positioned it less centrally, without blocking the buildings. I think that may have given the shot greater dynamic and balance. It is still a lovely atmospheric image however.

I really like this image, with some great contrast in colours between the pale pinky-orange and the rich purple shades, and whilst clearly abstract, the subject is still obvious. However, it has not been awarded or placed as for me, the image is entirely spoiled by the very large and very bright watermark which has been added. With this type of abstract image, which by its nature has no real focal point, the only thing I see when I look at the shot is the signature, so sadly all the effort you went to to produce this beautifully creative image has been wasted, as the image has, in my view, been defaced by writing over it. Such a shame, as it is a lovely image.