WINNER
A strikingly colourful photograph of trees and foliage in the area of the estate, in an interesting vertical format. It suggests the view out of a doorway- especially when the photograph is viewed on a screen with a black border or background. It brings to mind the experience of walking out of my flat on a bright sunny morning and being amazed by the vivid colours and beauty of the plants and trees just outside my front door.
SECOND PRIZE
The photograph has a strong structure- the verticals are all perfectly parallel and the diagonal white wall of the balcony leads the viewer into the image. This strong composition encouraged me to spend time finding and looking at the details in the scene- the plants reaching towards the light, the paint tubs that support the shelf that the pots are placed on, and the umbrella hanging on the gate. The photograph made me think of the idea of beauty in the everyday and how important this is in our lives.
THIRD PRIZE
A very funny and clever picture! My first thought on looking at this photograph was that it was just a picture of bin bags on a staircase before I noticed the cheeky looking squirrel to the top right of the picture. I love the way that he/she/they are looking directly at the camera.
The composition of the photo is very good, with the rubbish bags cascading down the stairs and the squirrel near the top of the brick handrail. The picture is slightly ‘soft’ or out of focus- it might be worth trying to sharpen this up a bit in a computer or on the device/camera on which it was taken.
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‘Careful… don’t drop it!’- I guess that the photograph was taken by holding the phone/camera over the edge of the handrail, which gives the viewer something of a sense of vertigo. The key things in the image that stand out for me are the vapor trail hanging in the sky to the right and the oddly shaped cloud on the left, which suggest that there is very little wind. There’s a feeling of the kind of stillness that you find just after sunset, or before sunrise. A good photograph, which is a little dark in places- you could maybe edit this to lighten the shadowy areas and to increase the contrast a bit.
There is a sense of mystery here. The leaves of the fig tree looming overhead and the foliage on either side of the pathway create a kind of tunnel which leads to a brighter area in the centre of the photograph. Here, we see a fence with a view beyond it and another pathway leading left and right. This is the focal point of the image- there is a suggestion that we are waiting for someone to appear, or for something to happen. The darkness of the foreground is effective although it might be interesting to try lightening this, just a bit, to bring out the detail of the leaves and the brick planter to the right.