After Dark

Prize

Sponsor

This was a very well entered competition with one of the best shortlisted levels we've had. The shortlist comprises some classic and well executed  night shots along with a few interesting surprises too.

We gave first place to Neil O'Connell for his night shot of the very busy Shibuya Junction in Tokyo. We had many entries featuring illuminated building and gorgeous skylines, but the thing that lifted this above the other finalists is the use of a slow shutter speed to record the passer-bys as blurs, while keeping our attention on the one static person. Inspired!

Second place is one for fans of Nosferatu. A creepy composite of a bat carefully placed in front of the moon. Classic horror from nature photographer Peter White. He also submitted the bat in a flying sequence which you can see (with other examples) on his ePHOTOzine portfolio.

Paul Sutton's makes third place for his long exposure taken from the passenger seat of a car that's driving through town at night. This technique is fairly easy to do, but not easy to do well. You need a small amount of light inside the car so it doesn't distract and a careful hand to get good light trails. This one is perfectly balanced...with just a small amount of movement to make the light trails have a random jagged pattern that adds to the effect.

Midnight groove is by another Neil, better known on ePHOTOzine as Funkledink. Neil, or Fred as he prefers to be called has gone underground in search of his night-time winner. Its a jazzy/gangster style that demonstrates good  composition and exposure skills, and his conversion from colour works brilliantly in black and white - a worthy fourth place.