Monthly #168 - Individual Competition

Thank you to those who have entered the June monthly competition. An interesting mix of entries (as I should have expected with a theme like “individual”)
My thoughts on each image:

“Stand Out” from the crowd – Kerrowdown
The more I looked at this image the more I found in it. The Stand Out does exactly that and is a great contrast to all the other characters in the image. I also like the movement within the image. A well seen and well executed entry

A Singularly Individual Chrysler – johnriley
I love old cars and have a long standing affection for the Chrysler brand. This is a beautifully presented example which stands well apart from modern offerings.

Fallen – gibis
This is the kind of scene I often see when out on my morning walks, the simplicity is very appealing. I find the right hand 1/3 of the image a little distracting where the branch goes out of focus and the bright bokeh dominates. I love the green of the leaves and the red of the fallen petal.

Honey Fungus – RayW
Nice shot of this small fungi emerging from the moss bed. Personally I feel the top of the image should have been cropped so that the fungus was not competing with the brown background. That said the EXIF information show this shot was taken 19/11/23 which puts it outside of this monthly competition parameter

Stand Alone against the crowd – Noelcmn
Great use of depth of field to isolate the flower head from the background. The colour of the flower also contrasts nicely with the background.

Horizontal – Simonmac
Another image with good use of depth of field, concentrating our focus on the individual in the foreground. He appears to be the only participant (in the image) eschewing the use of a yoga mat. Staring at this image for a long period (full size on a monitor) it is strange how the stone sphere almost seems to melt into the background - looking at the image in the standard gallery view it dominates

And to the results:

First place – “Stand Out” from the crowd – kerrowdown
Second place – Horizontal - Simonmac
Third place – Stand Alone against the crowd - Noelcmn

Oh what a wally I am, complete forgot the rules. Wasn't cheating on purpose, honest.

No worries, I have nearly done it myself on a few occasions, either wrong date or wrong camera make

Thank you Stephen for the competition and for your helpful observations.

I keep coming back to the winning shot. It's great!

All the best!