2 Winners Chosen - December 2012 - Admin's choice - Images of the month

[Marko]

Hi members,

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo each month from all the photos nominated by other members during that month in the Member's monthly choice forum.

Just so it's clear, the photo I choose is not necessarily the best one of the month. I've come to realize it's not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That's why there are categories in photo contests.

My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks.

This month has 2 choices! It's one of those times where I just could not decide due to the differences in the genres.
Congrats to Runmonty for capturing Mud Run and congrats to kmunroe for capturing eagles.

I chose these images for several reasons:

Mud Run by Runmonty

1 - Composition - The story of the image is a lot of fun and the image is very well captured. I like where the mud-runner's head ended up and really dig the position of her forearms. The perspective here is almost at eye-level which draws us in nicely. The cropping of the image works well. Not sure if the vignetting was intentional but that too works for me as it also helps to focus your eye on the woman.

2 - Sharpness - It's pretty tough to get eye-sharpness this good when the subject is moving in an erratic way and Runmonty did an awesome job here.

3 - Gesturing/Decisive moment - Love the bright smile and gesturing of the limbs. Mud-running is dirty work but this woman looks like she's having a great time. This moment was beautifully frozen so good timing!

Eagles by kmunroe

1 - Selective focus - I just love the overall depth of field here. The landing eagle is nice and sharp and the background is nice and soft with beautiful bokeh. This causes the eagle to pop. I also like the fact that I can still make out some trees in the background, and that they do not distract, they compliment the composition.

2 - Decisive moment/Gesturing - I really like the extended wings, open beak and position of the toes. The moment that the shutter was released produced a fantastic result.

3 - Shutter speed choice/exposure - Not only does this fast shutter speed freeze the eagle, but it also freezes the snow which is making this image even lovelier. The exposure here works well with both good highlight and shadow detail in the feathers.

For all these reasons, these are my choices for images of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again Runmonty and kmunroe!!