Structures - man made or natural

This image of Vasco da Gama bridge in Portugal leapt out at me as I was reviewing the submitted images. I believe that a long exposure was used to capture the image which in turn has rendered a photograph with great depth of field and extremely fine detail. The couple sat on the bench serve to add scale to the photograph. The processing and colour balance are also excellent There is empty space to the right of the photograph but to crop it would be to truncate Eupope's longest bridge! A super image. Well done.

I find this photograph of a staircase somewhere in Hamburg a really compelling image and as such it was in and out of my top 10 selection several times. It's almost abstact art in the composition, colour palette and lighting used and I like the way that the grey areas have kept the subtle gradations of the ascending ceiling. The post processing has been handled extremely well and the spiral leads the eye to the splash of colour at the top of the staircase giving the image an almost hypnotic feel.

This striking image of the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel near Colorado was another image that simply leapt off the screen and demanded the viewer's attention. As an image of a structure it totally fulfils the criteria and the image itself is exremely strong with regard to composition i.e., it's using the rule of thirds to great effect, the horizon is perfectly level, the amount of detail and lack of noise together with the colour palette within the photograph combine to make this an image to be proud of and as such I've awarded it third place.

What a fabulous photograph of the "Walkie Talkie" building in London. Judged to be the UK's worst/ugliest building in 2015 this does not detract from the fact that this image is so striking. I'm not sure where the photographer shot this image from but with regard to the composition it's spot on. The image is pin sharp and editing it in black & white only serves to enhance the drama and scale of the building. This to me is a structure that can't be ignored. Well done

This is an image that I returned to again and again. I was so intrigued with the image that I made it my mission to find out more about it. The beehive-inspired pavilion created by artist Wolfgang Buttress at Kew Gardens is, to my mind, one of the most inspiring contemporary structures in existence. The photographer has captured what is a very complex structure remarkably well. The exposure, level of detail and composition come together to produce what is truly a remarkable photograph and this is why I've awarded it first place. Well done.

This image is called "Skeletal" and is the skeleton pod of a Chinese Lantern Flower. I think it's a fabulous image and it works for me on several levels. It was taken with a macro lens as evidenced by the pin sharp focus at the centre of the image spreading to a gradual blur at the edges. The monchrome treatment suits the subject very well and the reflection of the pod from the surface that it's placed on adds to the strength of the image. It would have been interesting to see the result of a macro stacked image but as it stands this is one of my favourite images of the competition and I've awarded it second place.

This image of icebergs came very close to winning an award. With a school of thought that maintains that an image should contain an odd number of subjects, e.g., 3,5 etc., the main image of the the three icebergs is compositionally strong. Possibly cropping out a little of the foreground sea would have added to the the strength of the composition. With regard to the processing I think a correction to the white balance to reduce the pink/blue cast would have worked well and overall the image looks a little flat.

Structures don't normally come much larger than this Antartic iceberg especially when you consider that 90% of this structure is below the surface of the water!
I'm assuming that the photographer was in a RIB similar to the one in the photograph and if that was the case I must congratulate the photographer on the sharpness and clarity of the image. I think the boat in the foreground is extremely important as this gives scale and proportion to the image. Excellent processing and colour balance adds to what is a super image.