Photo Contest 2022 Results

Category 1: Animals

Winner

Lovely winter scene, with the bird perfectly profiled and captured mid-flight. The plain white background makes the bird really stand out, and the framing, drawing the eye in naturally from the bottom left corner is great technique.

Commended

Great close-up, eggs nicely positioned, and the frame filled with all the surrounding nest material, thus avoiding unnecessary distractions. Could be described as ‘painterly.’

Great colour, and good positioning of the macaque in the frame, using ‘rule of thirds. The background is nicely out of focus, giving emphasis to the subject, but providing information on the animal’s environment.

That’s one interesting looking bug! Good to keep it in focus, which is tricky with ‘macro’ (close-up) subjects as the depth of field tends to be very short.

NOTE: quite a few other entries had great wildlife subjects but had issues with either focus (tricky on distant subjects) or had been enlarged so much that they lost definition. This is a situation where dedicated long lenses have a huge advantage.

Category 2: Northshore Hikers Trips

Winner

Very in-your-face and dramatic. Great use of the foreground to get 1, 2, 3, 4! Layers of depth in the image. The mixture of direct light and shadowed areas is tricky to handle in an image, but has been done well here, adding to the drama.

Commended

Really nice light and colours, good framing, and depth to the image, with the clouds adding interest to the sky.

Good environmental portrait with the subject prominent, but also great background framing to show the location.

Fun close-up portrait, with effective out-of-focus background.

Category 3: People

Winner

Great candid close-up. Fills the frame with the subject, but with the location still clear in the background. The contra-jour lighting works really well.

Commended

Nice close-up portrait with good colour, demonstrating the open friendliness of Africans.

Always nice to see images with an unusual point of view and subject. Almost feels like shadows walking on a cloud.

Good angle with trail leading us into the landscape, with nice dots of bright colour contrasting with the green and grey environment.

Category 4: Plants

Winner

A close-run category, with this one winning out with vibrant colour, filling the frame with the subject and lots of details. An almost abstract feel.

Commended

Again, a great job of filling the frame with the subject and avoiding any surrounding distractions

Great composition with a close-up subject and great background. Would have been even stronger by applying the rule of thirds and moving the subject bullrush slightly so it wasn’t half in shadow!

This is an interesting case. Beautiful rich colours, and two beautiful subjects. But I feel that is a problem! It is half and half - a picture with a split personality. It would be much stronger if it was focused on the tree, or on the lake landscape, with just the tree along the edge framing it. Maybe even ducking down below the tree to use the foliage as a top and side frame of the lake view. Oh, and make sure your horizon is… horizontal!

Category 5: SCENERY - lot of great entries, but too many to include them all in commended

Winner

Lovely early morning light, lots of atmosphere, perfect reflection, and good use of foreground foliage to help frame the image and give it depth.

Commended

Great use of colourful foreground detail to lead the eye into the landscape and give it depth. The clouds below the viewpoint also really help to make the foreground stand out.

Bright warm sunlight on the peaks really contrasts with the cold muted landscape, and the trees help frame the view, and give it depth.

Nice soft light, and composition. Gives a good feel for the location.

Love this abstract detail.

Category 6: Humour

Winner

The winner was, a seagull looks at wooden seagulls by Lidia Halpert.

Commended

Penstock by Eugene Kaplounovski came a close second.