Judges Comments

This category was definitely the toughest to judge as the top four were so well done. First place was the unanimous choice despite the purist in one of us really wanted to see the heads not cut off. Even with that I, I mean the purist agreed that the image was artistically composed enough that it stopped both of us and made us look and ask questions and look some more. It reminded both of us of some kind of post-punk album cover. Very well done and very good job of seeing as opposed to looking by the photographer. Second place was so well composed and such a tender moment; everything from the footprints to the chivalrous gesture to the snow to the framing by the tree to the leading lines of the road. Excellent job and excellent image. We really appreciated the light, lines and repetition of pattern in the third place image. The fact that the light from the spotlight was immediately hitting the girl on her phone only added to the "decisive moment"-ness of the image; if it landed on anyone else in that back row the photo wouldn't have been nearly as strong. Good job. Honorable mention goes to the Native American cleaning his headdress photo. The lighting and exposure were perfect, but it just fell a little short compared to the top three photos.