Your best photo of 2017

This is the sort of still life that I imagine taking - only mine never look like this. Before I started trying to take still lives I always assumed they were easy - many painful attempts later I now know that getting an image like this one is anything but. It has interesting composition (the cup rings on the table add a little something extra), and is perfectly lit. It's nice to see a still life that isn't gloomy. The colours are bright and interesting, without being oversaturated. The portrayal of textures is excellent - I can feel the grain of the wood just by looking at it. The photographer has made this look an easy shot, but it would have been anything but.

Getting a hummingbird frozen in flight is a tricky thing, and getting one frozen in an interesting pose is even harder. The photographer here has taken or created a very nicely composed image, with the use of the flower with its 'open door' style petals to balance the image of the bird. The colours are nice too with the pink and green, and the background is lovely and smooth without any distractions.

The composition of this image is spot on. The sun is positioned just right, the horizon is dead flat, and the net reaches across the sky at the ideal angle to complete the pleasing set up. The net looks like smoke against the orange sky, and the soft lighting adds to that effect. A lot of popular pictures have an over-sharpened look I've noticed, this is a good example of where a softer look works best.

There are plenty of bee and insect macro photos on Photocrowd and indeed entered in this competition. I liked this one particularly because it is more of an 'action shot' and gives more context than some of the others. The focus is good on the bees and although the background has several colours, the strong red of the flower keeps the attention in the right place.

I set myself an extremely difficult - although enjoyable - task judging this competition. The standard of entries was very high and choosing just one winner really difficult! In the end this image won out, for being both technically accomplished and visually pleasing, and having an inherent simplicity. Someone must have stood very patiently and positioned themselves with great care to get this shot of the sun at exactly the right place through the tree. Putting the tree centrally in the image works well, and the exposure is good, keeping the golden green in the grass and the tree's shadow nicely visible. I also like the tiny bicycle on the skyline to the right of the frame - probably unintentional, but providing another point of focus if you look at the image for long enough.

I love the colours in this photo, the purple of the leaf contrasts beautifully with the smooth green background and the frog himself. The composition is great with the frog positioned just right and his hand gripping the edge of the leaf makes it a more interesting image. I also like that the reflections on his eyes have been kept to neat pinpoints on his pupils, so not distracting (something I find very hard to do myself!)

Sometimes it pays to get closer! I love owl pictures and I've not seen one quite like this before. The close up of the face, filling the frame, works really well.. Often owl shots zoom out a bit to capture the face shape. The detail on the feathers is fascinating, it looks almost like fur. This is in contrast to many great grey owl pictures (including my own) where the feathers look soft. The picture shows a different aspect of a familiar bird, and that's always welcome. It's also a stunning and dramatic picture that is very eye catching.

There is something magical about this image, I'd love to know where it was taken. The glassy water, still as a mirror, with just a touch of mist along the horizon, contrasts with the soft focus masses of the trees. The lighting is really beautiful, and the boat in the foreground makes the image more interesting and balanced than it would have been without. The choice to keep the colours relatively desaturated, rather than milking the sunset colours for all they were worth, was a good one. It gives a sense of mystery and magic to the picture. The fact it was taken on a smartphone just proves what can be achieved with these devices.

Talk about catching the perfect moment! This was a case of being in the right place and the right time with bells on - but undoubtedly was down to lots of patience and planning. The droplets radiating out towards the viewer act a little like leading lines, and the bright blue of the kingfisher stands out well against the blurred background. I can almost feel the whack as the fish hits the branch.

There is so much to see in this picture, every time I look at it I spot some other detail. The haphazard selection of boats means your eye wanders around the image at random, alighting on new things. The colours are bright but the photographer has resisted the urge to oversaturate them. It's one of those pictures that takes you to the place - you can almost hear the voices of the vendors and smell the river water.

This is a great idea for a picture and really effective. I love the contrast of the green and blue flowers against the grey/black sky and trees. It's a very striking picture and you need to look for a moment to work out what it is of. The vibrant, delicate flowers and the skeletal, dark trees create a visual tension that gives a real sense of drama to the image. A very creative photo.

One of the challenges with street photography is getting good light. Of all the photo genres it's got the fewest opportunities for controlling the image. So this picture stood out because the light is so effective. The story behind the image explains how the photographer found the pool of light and set up to take pictures of people walking through, showing good planning. The timing of the shot is perfect, and the smoke looks dramatic and adds a both a brighter patch of colour and a leading line. The image is nice and sharp even though the subject was moving. It's a nice candid image and shows a sight common on many streets in the UK in 2017.

Not every photographer would even try shooting white on white and few would execute it so successfully. I know I couldn't! The duck manages to stand out despite being the same colour as the background, largely because of slight differences in shade and light. It's nicely sharp and I like the muted reflection and little imperfections on the ice surface which give it a more natural look and prove it's not just a duck pasted onto a white background. The yellow beak and red feet add critical splashes of colour to enhance the overall effect of the picture.

This picture always catches my eye no matter how many times I see it (and I've looked through these competition entries a lot!). The colours in the sky are beautiful, with the range from glowing pink right up to deep blue at the top. But it's the trees that really make the picture. They are just so perfectly arranged and positioned, and stand out just beautifully against the background. The tallest tree is just the right height to bring together the range of colours in the sky, acting as a sort of leading line. There's also a nice subtle contrast between the straight vertical lines of the trees and the horizontal bands of colour in the sky. It's very well exposed, given that the light must have been low and the snow on the ground would have added a further challenge to balance.

This beautiful photograph is very well timed, catching the drops of water shaken off the kingfisher. I initially thought they were snowflakes or raindrops. The stunning blues of the bird stand out against the smooth, non-distracting background, and the green moss of his perch adds another colour tone. I like his ruffled look, it gives him more texture and a very natural, candid look.

This beautiful picture would make a lovely greeting's card. The purple shade is such a pretty colour and is spread across the image in a subtle, shifting way. The stalks of grass give extra depth and texture to the picture. Although the purple seeded grasses on the right are the subject, it's one of those pictures where the subject sets off the background rather than vice versa. Very pretty and I could definitely imagine it selling well as a card, the square crop lends itself well to that.