This is normally a fun and challenging category to judge. Modern AF has taken one of the major difficulties almost completely out of the equation of producing great sports photos, and new high-ISO camera capabilities have largely expanded the field of viable venues. One might expect sports action to be among the most-entered categories and for the decisions to really come down to choosing among many good images. Sadly, at least this month, the real challenge was finding any entries that rose to a level worthy of distinction. Far too many images were mundane action, in many cases poorly composed. We liked first place because it was slightly unusual in the flight of the one player. It was properly exposed, in focus and well-composed. After that, we largely put the hand to the face in second because it was clearly the absolute peak moment of the impact. We could see, albeit not as tack sharp as we might like, the rebounding of flesh to the impact. Third was a rather simple, clean, wrestling action photo that did not have any major faults.
Judges:
Sean D. Elliot/The Day, Peter Huoppi/The Day, Dana Jensen/The Day, Sarah Gordon/The Day
Judges Comments
This is normally a fun and challenging category to judge. Modern AF has taken one of the major difficulties almost completely out of the equation of producing great sports photos, and new high-ISO camera capabilities have largely expanded the field of viable venues. One might expect sports action to be among the most-entered categories and for the decisions to really come down to choosing among many good images. Sadly, at least this month, the real challenge was finding any entries that rose to a level worthy of distinction. Far too many images were mundane action, in many cases poorly composed. We liked first place because it was slightly unusual in the flight of the one player. It was properly exposed, in focus and well-composed. After that, we largely put the hand to the face in second because it was clearly the absolute peak moment of the impact. We could see, albeit not as tack sharp as we might like, the rebounding of flesh to the impact. Third was a rather simple, clean, wrestling action photo that did not have any major faults.