Judges Comments

Sadly, a remarkably weak category. Several good single frames were hurt by being entered as multiples dragged down by weaker images. One multiple had only two frames, but the rules require at least three, so we couldn’t even consider it, except to say that one of the frames along, maybe had a shot at placing. First place went to the lone firefighter on a hillside framed between the glare of a spotlight, and the glow of a burning tree. The light is dramatic, and the spotlight makes it work. The firefighter’s stance gives a sense of drama beyond just the big flames. Second was really only given because we felt we had to, the three-image set felt like it was close to telling a story, but was actually edited too tightly, with the first frame being a nice ‘big flames’ photos, but the second and third frames were decent enough, but left us wanting more. We could not bring ourselves to name a third, the weak multi-image entries left us disappointed, because there may have been a different second, and definitely a third-place finisher if only some photographers could have edited themselves.