Red Poppies in the Wild (no people)

I have been blown away by the very high standard of photography in this competition which made it a very hard task to short list and judge. This photograph stands out to me as the closest to the intent of the brief, the shallow depth of field strengthening the crisp focus on the subject. Exposed to perfection to bring out the vibrancy of the colour of these evocative flowers. This image is clearly in the field, capturing the flower in nature rather than an artificially contrived still life, which can be very hard to do out in the elements.

This was a surprising take on the subject for me, I was not expecting close up of the flower buds. The subject itself is reminiscent of a 1960s horror movie, which makes me laugh. The depth of colour and sharp focus and excellent composition making this is a great macro shot.

This striking photograph captures the beauty of the poppy in a field, in this landscape with two balanced subjects, neither of which detracts from the other. I love the quality of light captured in the golden hour and the etherial mist creating a romantic vista. There is also a gradation from top to bottom.

Here I love and commend the sharp corner to corner focus of the green background, which contrasts with the red of the bloom. A clever technique highlighting with colour, rather than depth of field focus or light. I find that the high contrast in the lower levels reminds me of an old national geographic style shot on kodachrome film.