Wide-aperture imagery

Howard has done a brilliant job transforming his ordinary fork into extraordinary abstract art. A great image has the ability to make you look twice and this image certainly does that, as it takes a second to work out what you're looking at. Macro photography reveals stunning details that would normally go unseen. The four fork prong ends almost appear to be emerging from mist but it's just a simple shallow depth of field trick. Great job!

Lovely composition and use of a wide aperture to create a shallow depth of field works well at separating this condor chick from its background. Ian has done well to frame up with the bird on the right looking towards the empty space on the left as this makes the space appear more 'active' and dynamic.

Richard has done a tremendous job getting close enough to such a skittish subject to achieve a frame-filling composition. The side profile of the puffin works well with his composition and catching a moment where the puffin has a beak full of sand eels adds extra interest too. The thing holding this shot back is the quality of light as it looks like it was taken on quite an overcast day - it would look more vibrant and interesting with a bit more sunshine or golden lighting from the golden hour.

Dominic's captured a fantastic portrait full of colour and atmosphere. His wide aperture of f/1.6 does a great job of turning the background lights into beautiful bokeh circles while the neon sign adds plenty of vibrance to his model in the foreground and creates an eye-catching reflection in her glasses too. Great job!

Tracey's taken a lovely pet picture of her cat Amber in the garden. She's nailed the focus as the cat's face a perfectly sharp and the wide aperture has done a good job at blurring the background. too The hedges at the sides of the image and loose twig poking into frame make the composition a little messy but this minor issue aside it's a fantastic shot!

Photographing butterflies is no easy task as they're easily scarred, tricky to focus on and often require a macro lens. Julie's shot impressed us as she's caught the perfect moment this butterfly had its wings fully spread so we can see the beautiful yellow and black pattern on the wings in all its intricate detail. The purple flower adds an extra splash of colour and the background has been blurred with a wide aperture to make sure her subject gets 100% of the viewer's attention. To top it all off, her focus is spot-on too. Great work!

Darren's captured an incredible moment in time that really shows harsh life in the wild can be. Stopping this image from making it into our top ten is that it looks a little lo-res and quite cropped in so some of the details in the Osprey appear a bit washed out. A wider composition showing the full wingspan would also work more effectively inn our opinion. Minor niggles aside this is an otherwise fantastic capture and we hope to see more from Darren in the future. Great job!

This is a lovely portrait from Marco, he's made sure the focus is precisely on the girl's eye and used a wide aperture of f/2.8 to blur the background bringing all of the attention on to his subject. Great job!

Caroline has captured a wonderful portrait of her daughter Willow. The late summer sun works wonderful well giving the image a gentle quality with subdued colours that really help draw the viewer's eye towards the red poppy that the girl is holding. The wide aperture on her 85mm f/1.2L lens does a great job of softening the background and giving the shot a dream-like quality.

It's not often we see portraits taken of praying mantis so Zeltner has pleasantly surprised us with this incredible close up. The subdued colours in the shot work well to tie the whole image together and the framing works well as she's made sure to be extra generous with room above the mantis head to ensure its long antennae aren't cropped out of the frame. We look forward to seeing more from her in the future!

When we think of deer images the first thing that springs to mind is the sheer power and violence displayed in the rutting season. Jack's atmospheric and peaceful image of this lone stag on a foggy morning couldn't be more of the polar opposite, so it's a refreshing change! By using a wide aperture of f/4 he's blurred the background into a wash of pastel pinks and purples - it does a fantastic job at allowing the instantly recognisable stag silhouette to stand out and providing bags of colour too.

An awesome shot from Steve Campbell who managed to bag this brilliant animal portrait on his first day photographing them in Inverness. There's an abundance of colour in the shot with from the fiery reds in the squirrel's coat, to the lush green grass and purple heather. The composition works really well with his subject positioned on the left and looking into the empty space on the right as this makes it look much more dynamic. Great job!

Jayne has expertly waited and been patient to win over the trust of the foxes she wanted to photograph. This has paid dividends as it allowed her to bag this awesome animal portrait. We love the low angle which makes it feel much more intimate and makes the blurred background more appealing. She's caught just the right moment when the fox is looking directly at her making the eye contact in this image strong and instantly drawing the viewer's eye in.

Marc's stitched together eight individual images to create this fantastic panorama of the Favaritx lighthouse in Menorca. This super wide view works tremendously well, allowing him to include the full arch of the Milky Way in the frame above the lighthouse. Great job!

Dony's turned dew drops on a spiderweb into abstract art which looks fantastic up close and with his black and white conversion. What's more impressive is it was taken on a Canon PowerShot A710 compact which just goes to show you don't always need expensive gear to get top shots!