Summer landscapes

We really love this image – for all the wrong reasons! What a bizarre, psychedelic, headache inducing montage of a shot. While it really doesn't fulfil the 'summer landscape' brief, it does make us feel like we've spent rather too much time in the sun.

This shot shows a great deal of technical ability. The photographer has carefully composed the scene so that the horizon sits on the top third of the frame, while the boat just breaks this horizon and masks the full glare of the sun that could have otherwise been blown out. Not only has HDR been sensitively used to retain tonal detail, but focus stacking ensures that everything from the patterns in the sand shaped by the tides to the horizon are perfectly sharp.

The central composition beautifully mirrors the pastel shades of the summer sky and colourful buildings that line the waterfront, while the use of an ND filter to create a long exposure turns the wind-blown clouds into beautiful streaks, resulting in a beautifully serene image.

A summer storm rolls in, with a colourful-yet-brooding sky contrasting against the golden field of wheat below. The lone tree provides a brilliant focal point while the single bolt of lightning, somehow captured during a split-second 1/500 sec exposure, shows exemplary timing – or perhaps a good deal of luck!

This summer sunset evokes a feeling of wide open spaces. That vast beach, wet from outgoing tide, reflects the tones of the sky, while the cliffs anchor the scene, leading the eye to the setting sun. The 5 sec shutter speed creates just enough blur to soften the clouds for an abstract look.

What a magical scene, almost as if the rainbow encompasses a dome of light that illuminates the landscape below. The f/5 aperture means that depth of field is quite shallow for a landscape image, but as all the interest is in the distant lighted areas, this is unimportant. The camera settings further suggest that this was taken without a tripod, but to have set one up would have undoubtedly missed the moment.

We have many entrants of lavender fields in this month's contest, but this is our favourite. The furrows between the neat rows make wonderful leading lines to the lone tree, and the square crop is a smart decision – for a meticulously balanced image.

At first glance this looks like it was composed on an easel, rather than a camera! It shows a true mastery of Photoshop, which has transformed what could have been a so-so image, given the conditions it was taken under. That said, the composition of the base image has been well thought out, using a telephoto lens to compress perspective and make the foreground boat dominant.

We love the epic sense of scale in this panoramic image. The winding road, snaking its way through the mountain pass, leads the eye through the frame, while the jeep is in the perfect position, placed close to the intersection of the rule of thirds.