Sports photography

A classic boxing image – but if you've ever tried to take one, you'll know how difficult it is to do. Both boxers are beautifully sharp, frozen in the heat of the action – the photographer raised the ISO to 2000 to enable a very fast shutter speed, but Nikon D-SLRs can cope with that – while the flying sweat betrays how energetic the scene really is. The bright red of the gloves means your gaze goes to the crucial point in the picture: the fists.

There's no action in this shot, but thanks to the way the skateboard is balanced on the lip of the half-pipe and the pose of the skateboarder, you know it's at most seconds away. The depth of field is nicely chosen; you can make out the spectators in the background, but they're blurry enough not to be a distraction. Skate parks are colourful places, and conversion to black-and-white has prevented colour in the graffiti and people's clothing from confusing the scene.

While noise is generally to be avoided in photos, a noisy image is preferable to a blurry one, and in situations where a bit of 'grit' is appropriate, such as a wrestling match, it even adds to the atmosphere. The speckling in this image is reminiscent of film grain.

Leading lines on a track are a real gift to photographers. By focussing on the athlete closest to where the track starts to curve, the photographer has ensured there's a greater sense of movement in the image. Had the section of track been purely straight, the impression would have been of the athletes being ready to move towards the viewer – who then becomes a stopping point, halting the motion. With the curve, the athletes look as though they're going to swing past the viewer, and the sense of motion is endless.

With rodeo sports, you need to be quick on the trigger, and good at following the action with your camera. The tactic of pre-focussing on a spot and waiting for the competitors to hit it, which works for track-based sports, is no good here. Everything important in the scene is sharp and in motion – all three participants are off the ground. Conversion to black-and-white removes colourful ringside distractions, allowing the light (hitting from the perfect side angle) to define things.

Although freezing action risks creating a static-feeling shot, in this case the fact that so many of the volleyball players have their feet off the ground ensures you know they're moving – this is a split-second before they all come back to earth. The photographer has chosen a great angle to shoot from; not only does it increase the impression that the players are jumping very high, it ensures their heads, hands and the ball are all framed against the clean darkness, rather than the more confusing sea of spectators.

This is simultaneously a great portrait and a fantastic action shot. A tilted body of water usually spoils photographs, as it indicates the camera isn't straight, but in the right context, as here, it can introduce a dynamic feel that adds to the overall image. In this case you feel as though the photographer, as well as the swimmer, is emerging shakily from the water, ready to continue racing. The warm cast is unusual in a sports image, and the active, sharp-edged swimmer contrasts strongly with his warm, gently toned background.

Very few photos manage to capture the excitement of the spectators and exertions of the athletes within the same frame, but thanks to the unusual shooting angle, it's all in this image of street wrestling. From such a distance, it would have been easy for the wrestlers to have got lost, but your eye is drawn immediately to the simplest, palest part of the image, the wrestling ring, and to the two small figures competing within it. Despite the crowds, you sense that they feel alone in their exertions.

If you're going to have motion in a shot, it helps to have somewhere for the subject to move into, which is exactly what the photographer has framed for here. Without the space, it would still have been a good image, but with less of a sense of bursting away. The horse and rider are beautifully crisp and detailed (a super-fast shutter speed has frozen every last hair in the mane and kicked-up drop of water) and the background nicely blurred, ensuring the landscape doesn't take over the shot.

Tilt always gives a sense of being off-balance, and photographers often achieve it by tilting the camera – but not in this case; that horizon is completely level. The yacht is what's at an angle, captured rocking about on the waves as it races. (Stare at it too long, and you might start to feel a little queasy yourself.) The judges really liked the deep depth of field allowing the competing yachts to be visible, distant though they are, and everything is beautifully crisp.

Flying dirt is fairly commonplace in sporting images, and while this shot is crisp and clear, with a nicely blurred background, it's not unusual in any of those respects. What really makes this photo stand out is the way the motorcyclist appears to be staring straight into the camera. You can almost feel his determination and drive! The close crop, with the rider taking up most of the frame, makes it feel as though you're very close to all that flying dirt and that glare.