Street photography

So close yet so far! A potentially great image, with the subject's guise mirroring the mural behind almost perfectly, but it breaks all almost all the competition rules. There's no background information about the image or the camera it was taken on, so we can't judge whether it's suitable for a Nikon-specific magazine, and dirty great watermarks make it unprintable. Read the rules!

This is an exquisitely timed shot, in which the photographer has waited patiently for the right moment for a passer-by to perfectly frame the spiritual healer in London’s Chinatown, both seemingly oblivious to the other. The extremely low angle of view not only adds a real sense of dynamism to the shot, but creates leading lines from the street’s paving stones.

This humorous and candid shot-from-the-hip sums up the characters that are typically encountered travelling the late-night Underground: the loved-up couple, the little-worse-for-wear young lady, the weary seen-it-all-before London Transport employee – and we love titular nod to the classic Jam track!

The pitiful hunched figure of the elderly woman extends the begging bowl but she is ignored – perhaps unseen – by the passing crowds. The photographer has chosen to crop the rushing passers-by at the shoulders, making them completely anonymous, and placing the focus squarely on the lonely old lady.

As the tourists jostle for position at Greenwich to get the best viewpoint of the London skyline across the Thames, Dave is more interested in capturing the people. His decision to crop to a panoramic format excludes dead areas of foreground and empty sky, focusing the viewers’ attention squarely on the camera phone-wielding public.

Tom’s clever use of a 1/2 sec exposure is just long enough to blur the hustle and bustle of pedestrians in the financial centre of Hong Kong as they make their way over the busy crossing, while a lone figure stands rock-steady in the middle of the frame, in an oasis of calm watching the world go by, mirroring the traffic that is only temporarily at a standstill.

Pete has captured a wonderful candid portrait here, with the colourfully dressed clown seeking relief after a day working the crowds at the Eiffel Tower. He admits that the image is somewhat voyeuristic, but in a playful way, and he’s even found time to carefully compose his shot with negative space, giving the clown space to ‘move into’, so to speak…

This dark and moody shot has a wonderful interplay of light and shade. The vertical composition, with the lone figure almost exiting the top of the frame while the bottom is plunged into darkness, suggests a sinister feeling of what lurks in the shadows.

This skilful juxtaposition cleverly taken in a single image shows two sides of India. On one side the hopeless plight of the homeless rough sleepers is emphasised by the monochrome conversion, while the busy traffic trails and bright lights on the other side of the road hint at the prosperity that they can only dream of.

Timing is everything in this shot. George has shown great foresight in carefully setting up his composition to have the interesting backdrop of one of the large street art murals that make up part of Glasgow’s City Centre Mural Trail, then waiting for an unsuspecting pedestrian to pass under the extended fingers of the mural’s giant figure before hitting the shutter button.