City Competition 6 2014 - all cities! : Results

Judges Comment
The photographer has created two worlds in one image with their use of light open space in the top right half of the image juxtaposed with the dark patterned wall and ground on bottom left half of the image. The strong converging lines of the architecture help focus on the point where the woman stands poised at the boundary between the two halves. Will she enter the ethereal world or stay back in the realm of the real? The bird helps complete the image and tie the empty space down. Well done!
Photographers Comment
Wow – thank you very much for choosing my photo! I feel honored. Thanks for the lovely comment as well. Congratulations to the other participants also. I’m a amateur photographer living just outside Oslo, Norway. This shot was taken while I was working with a task given in a photo workshop. It was shot at the Oslo Opera House - a place worth seeing if you ever visit Oslo. I needed something in the end of the wall and I got that when the woman showed up. The bird adds something to the shot and I admit that I was a bit lucky when it came over the roof top. It is rather hard to instruct seagulls :) The photo is converted to black and white in Photoshop. I used my Nikon D7100 with a18-105mm lens (1/320; f/7.1; ISO 800). Thanks again! Feel free to visit my blog.
mittenedhands.com

Judges Comment
The browns, blues and greens of this image, the spontaneous color harmony grabs your subconscious and holds you to this image long enough that your conscious mind starts turning over and over around what could be hiding here to discover. But there isn't anything to discover, or is there?
Photographers Comment
Congrats to the winner! My name is Ralph Ballerstadt. For this image I used a Leica R8 attached with the summicron 50/2.
www.ralphballerstadtphotography.net

Judges Comment
This beautiful geometric abstraction of building rooftops has immense visual appeal, and was very well executed. Fantastic!
Photographers Comment
Thank you for the MOE. My name is Stefan Pütz-Cordes, and I live in Hennef (Germany). The image was shot down from television tower in Düsseldorf and shows the state parliament.
www.stefanpuetz.com

Judges Comment
We've seen many plays on the man vs. nature theme, but this one's got a bit of a twist to it that we liked. First, its a very pleasing image with good use of color and open space in the composition with a tie to bring foreground and background together. The twist? Well, the flowers are manufactured.
Photographers Comment
Thank you very much for this recognition. My name is Chris Pattison. I live in the north east of England. This image was made at the Tower of London in the summer of 2014. The Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation was very much in its infancy when I visited the Tower, but this sweep of poppies reaching up like a crashing wave caught my eye. It took a while to find the composition where the Shard finds its way through the poppies without the apex being obscured. This image was taken with a humble Pentax Q compact and the standard zoom lens. I have added some grain texture and a light graduated filter effect in Lightroom.
www.streetlevelphotography.com

Judges Comment
The surreal colors of this (infrared?) image works well and the checkerboard pattern harmonizes with the buildings. The converging lines of the architecture draw the eye to the background and the pink trees bring them back to the fore in a repeating cycle which activates the composition.
Photographers Comment
Congratulations to the City Competition winner and to all of those who were recognised! My name is Kimberly Putinta. This picture was made in Rotterdam, The Netherlands which is a beautiful city that combines modern architecture, history and nature. I used a Nikon D3100 that has been converted to infrared. Post-processing was done with LR and PS to appropriately develop an infrared photo. Thanks so much to the judges for the recognition and kind comments. I am thrilled.
norse-cove-photography.com

Judges Comment
The varied tones and textures of this cityscape sparkle like a jewel. While it's clearly shot through a window, the reflection line going down diagonally through the image plane doesn't distract as it fits in with the lines of the image and even seems to add another layer. Excellent!
Photographers Comment
I am absolutely chuffed at this pat on the back! Thank you so much. May I first congratulate the winner and all those whose efforts have been recognised. My name is Marella Oppenheim and I am an actor, writer and amateur photographer who dreams of one day being good enough to have an exhibition. Primarily, I enjoy Portrait work, Street and Documentary. I took this picture through the window of the tourist boat that tours Manhattan, a couple of years back with a Cannon 550D and a 18-135mm zoom. I was trying to capture the coldness and the immensity of this city and as I looked at it, all I thought about was the frenzy within the stalagmites of glass and steel, and that behind every little square, a story was unfolding. A beehive of a city.

Judges Comment
A beautiful, tranquil space and scene has been recorded by the photographer here, and their choice of a long exposure helps convey that feeling with smoother water and sky. The image has been technically well executed with good sharpness and balance of tones from dark to light. Was the image intentionally cropped on the top to be in line with the top of the building?
Photographers Comment
Name: Judy N. Adhitianto Location: Pura Ulu Danu Bratan, Bedugul, Bali, Indonesia Camera: Leica M9, lens Elmarit 28mm f/2.8 with Lee filters 10 & 6 stops. Post processing: SFX Pro 2 + LR I came to Bali specifically to hunt sceneries just like this which Bali has so many to offer. It was raining that day and I was juggling between holding an umbrella and positioning the tripod and camera. I purposedly cropped just til the tip of the temple for better composition.
www.judynafotografi.net

Judges Comment
Colorful and rich with potential, we found this image engaging. The blue and yellow juxtapose each other just as the palm tree's and the man in the dark shirt in dark room. We are intrigued. Does the bearded man in the dark room wish he were on the tropical island, or did he come to the city to find his dream and fail?

Judges Comment
"Everything for the house" if we can call it that, has a very Norman Rockwell like painterly quality to it even though processed much differently. Great image!

Judges Comment
This beautiful night city scene caught our eye for its nice composition, good technical execution, and new perspective. Nicely done!
Photographers Comment
Thank you very much. The picture was taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the 14mm Lumix G f2.5 lens. The location is New York City, after a rain storm, looking south on Fifth Avenue toward the Plaza Hotel. Shot with a one second shutter speed to get the flow of the car lights. I was really happy that the walking couple slowed their pace long enough at the intersection so that they would not be ghostly blurs.