January Photo Winner
Back at the beginning of January I set a photo challenge. All you had to do was take or make a picture of something new and upload it to the Flickr Group page. What constituted “new” I left up to you and there were many interpretations of that theme.
I was blown away by the number of excellent entries and I’d like to thank everyone who got into the spirit of the competition. If you went out and took a photo just for this challenge then you should be proud of your achievement.
Choosing a winner was really, really hard, so I started by narrowing the entries down by selecting the photos that made me think ”… I wished I’d taken that”. From that list I narrowed it down even further to images that were “new” in my opinion. That left me with a short list of 10 amazing photos.
So the winner is… Westminster Sunset by Paul Smith 
I really loved the colours in this shot. It’s taken at the perfect time of day and cropped to perfection. By the way the “new” bit in this photo is a new ND grad filter Paul used to darken the sky. Well done Paul.
Near Misses…
The runners up in no particular order are below. Click on an image to view it large on Flickr. If you didn’t win this time there’s a new challenge running until the end of February. Details are here
 Glenoe Waterfall by David.Bladon |
 Happy New Year by Lucy Davey75 |
 New Toy by .e.mage |
 ISO Check on New Camera by D.J.Flynn |
 New Years Day Sun Rise by rsjdad |
 First attempt in Steel Wool Photography by teddybearwithatowel |
 Untitled by Joyina |
 The Birds by Tigermoth |
 Ft Fisher Sunrise by Kevin James54 |
Fair play to the winner. That is a serious shot and would look fantastic on anyones wall.
Glad I made the shortlist though with my squirrel.
Dave, your shot made it in because it made me smile 🙂
Wow, so many great photos and I love the winner! Gavin, I only recently discovered your tutorials/site, and they have helped me immensely! I’m proud to have incorporated some of your techniques, and to have made your short list with my “Ft Fisher Sunrise” photo.
Kevin, anyone who get up at sunrise is a winner in my book. Not being a morning person myself, I tend to stick to shooting sunsets.
Congrats to the winner and those on the shortlist..shows you how crap i am at photography..jack of all trades,master of none.lol
Wow, fair play to the winner, Photo looks great! Thanks Gavin for putting my picture on Runner up group! See you soon!
You’re welcome. One day I’ll give that wirewool thing a go. It looks like great fun and very slightly dangerous… a good combination in my book.
That image deserved to win – well done!
What a fabulous winner and thank you for having my photograph in the runner up list Gavin !
Lucy, you’re very welcome. Thanks for entering.
What an excellent choice for the January challenge. I wish there was a link back to Flickr on Paul Smith’s name or photo title. I see that all your choices above shot their photos in January, using the “new” theme. You did a fine job judging. Thank you, Gavin. It was fun.
Good point. A link is now in place.
A truly worth winner! That photo of Big Ben is very lovely! The slow shutter speed really brings the scene to life. There are some great runners up though! Anyone involved should be extremely proud!
-Congrats to the winner! The colors and the photo is spectacular! Definitely wall-worthy!!!! Good choice, Gavin!
Surprised to see my “red shoes” as a runner up – that made my day & made me SMILE! I was learning to drive my “new” ’73 bus and thought that would be a fun way to capture the moment!
Beautiful photo…HUGE congrats to the worthy winner xxx
A worthy winner….
this is fun! congratulations to the winner – well deserved – and to the runners-up, as well!
i’m happy my photo, new toy – and the only one in b/w, made it to the shortlist. thank you mr. hoey. thank you to the many who viewed and commented on this photo in flickr!
Great shot congrats Paul, now to find a shot for Feb. I’ll leave my Cat out this time 🙂
I need one of those ND Grad Filters! Great shot Paul… you deserved to win!
Hi Gavin,
just wondering if the contestants were allowed to photo shop their entries?
Yes, you’re allowed to use Photoshop in any way you like. All I ask is that the work is done by you AND any elements you use in the image were created by you.
A nice photo. Congratulations Paul Smith.