Swamps and marshlands

This is a super image. I really like the warm orange tones and chilly-looking water; I also love how the water reflects the colour of the sky. It's such a gorgeous wintery scene, and another of a few images here that I'd like to see on ym wall.

The smallest thing – I'd love to see what this same composition and treatment would look like with a neutral density filter attached, just to knock a bit of the detail and ripples out of the water.

Awwwww yes. There is so much to like about this shot. The wandering tendrils of the trees reflected in the water, the silvery texture, the baffling abstractness of the whole thing. This is a really nice take on landscape photography and is so much more interesting than by-the-book images. I really like the processing as well – sepia is not exactly a terribly bold processing choice but it works so beautifully here, particularly with the water producing an almost metallic sheen.

A look at the longlist of this competition's entries reveals a problem for landscape photographers: if all you're doing is turning up to your local stunning view and popping off a few wide-angle shots at f/16, your images are going to look much the same as everyone else's. My favourite images in this set are the ones that take an abstract approach, and you can't get much more abstract than converting a camera to infra-red and totally subverting the colours in front of you. Infra-red photography is a bit of a Marmite approach, but it works really well here, with the bleached white trees nicely offset against the blue skies.

At first glance this shot is pretty cluttered; there isn't a clean line anywhere in the frame, but I really like the twin shorelines running diagonally across the frame, and the explosive splash in the middle lends the shot a bit of energy and oomph (technical term). I really like how the ripples from the splash disrupt the otherwise calm reflections in the water, as well as how the taller reaches of the splash mirror the colour of the furthest bank. A really nice composition.

From the vast majority of images entered into this competition, you'd think the only inhabitants of wetlands around the world were crocodiles and heron. Not so, as this lovely documentary shot from India demonstrates. The signs of human adaptation are everywhere, from the umbrellas sheltering their users from the midday heat to the impromptu bike transportation service front and centre. The photographer also says that this image is straight from the camera – testament to the lovely diffused light available on the day.

There were no shortage of animal pics entered into this competition, but this one is such a technical triumph that I couldn't let it languish outside the top 10. Macro photography is just so fecking difficult (technical term) to get right, particularly when you start to involve wildlife, and doubly, triply so when you start involving small, twitchy subjects like this gorgeous dragonfly. The depth of field is so beautifully managed, and I love the detail in those marvellous wings. As a wildlife snapper I'm dead jealous, because this shot is great.

As a son of the New Forest, this shot is very evocative. I've spent plenty of time hunkered down in reed beds with mulchy water slowly soaking into my clothes, and this shot reminds me of the UK at its wintery best. So it's pretty surprising to find out that this shot was made in Tasmania, half a world away.

For me this shot is all about the beautifully diffused sun in the middle of the frame, and the way it produces a little warm pool of light in the water towards the bottom of the frame. It's virtually a monochromatic frame, too. J'adore.

The colours and textures in this image put me in mind of Van Gogh, and the edge-to-edge composition is a really effective way of laying the image out. The little streak of blue towards the bottom of the frame is a lovely touch, as is the positioning of the different hues, layered up the image vertically.

There's so much room in landscape photography for abstract images like these, and while straightforward "here's the view" pictures give a very literal sense of place, shots like these are far more evocative. And a bit braver, which is what I like about them.

The info for this image reveals it was taken in the Czech Republic; not previously a place on my bucket list but with landscapes like this I might just change my mind.

This image is all about colour and composition. I love the wandering track (perfectly aligned with the rule of thirds, photo-geeks) as it weaves from top to bottom, and the golden reeds and blue cracked earth are complementary colours, giving the image a symmetry beyond its pleasing layout.

This is such a lovely angle; one of only a few shots from a photographer that isn't me that I want on my wall anyway. I really like the tones and the light in this picture; the dark brown water and lush green coastline, complete with its gradient from light to dark then back again.

The composition actually reminds me a bit of Rhein II by Andreas Gursky, but it's the tiny details that do it for me here. The little landlocked boats in the middle of the frame, and the apparently abandoned dinghies towards the left, as well as the little clutch of seabirds on the other side. Awesome!

Another top-down entry. I'm not sure why I like these so much; possibly because so much landscape photography follows the tedious "bunch of rocks in the foreground, over-Photoshopped sky above", whereas this is far more eye-catching. The colours are really interesting, and the little splash of uneven light towards the bottom left stops the image simply looking like a map. The composition is another good one - this is top use of drone tech to produce a really interesting shot.

I really like the soft light and low-lying fog in this image; this looks like a gorgeous start to a day. The finishing touch is the flock of birds nipping from right to left.

The soft lighting is what makes this shot, though. It gives the image a soft, under-saturated effect, tending towards under-exposure for the background at the top third of the shot. It makes for a really painterly effect that I absolutely love - the British countryside at its best.

There were loads – and loads, and loads, and loads – of crocodile images in this set, an occupational hazard of getting people to look for images taken in bogs and swampland. Few were more eye-catching than this one, though - the 'gator's eye perfectly framed by the foreground leaves, which usefully provide a splash of colour to a pretty dark subject. The too-slow shutter speed is a missed opportunity, although it's easy to criticise images when you weren't the one trying to hold a camera steady off the side of a boat. And you certainly don't want to lean too far when there's God-knows-what under the surface. Still, a decent smack of ISO would have sharpened the image up a bit.

I absolutely love a Highland Cow, and this one has been nabbed in a belting bit of light. It really makes the most of the animal's comical lines – sorry, cows, but you look funny. The barrel-shaped midrift is offset by those threatening horns, which are themselves offset by the eyes hidden by that silly floppy fringe.

The only criticism I have of this image is the post-processing. It looks like the luminance slider has been dragged a touch too far, and the resulting HDR effect is a touch strong for my liking. It's a personal opinion, mind, but I think this is a strong composition of an interesting subject in good light, so I'd be tempted to leave it as is.

This is such a beautifully timed shot; the water meniscus around the neck of the heron speaks to a finely-honed trigger finger, a good eye and a great set of reactions. I quite like the ripples in the background.

Obviously, the gritty question of technical quality rears its head – this looks like a pretty severe crop so there's a bit of pixelisation. This could be ameliorated a bit by cropping out a bit. I'd really like to see a slightly wider version of this image.

This is a great frame. I especially like the angle - or, perhaps, the lack of it - which gives a duck's eye view. The diffused background makes the image feel really peaceful, and the red leaves in the foreground lend the shot a bit of colour. This is for the best, as balancing the exposure has left our heroic mallard all but a silhouette. The way the trees creep into the frame from the sides is a neat framing trick, too.