The photography competition – Allegra’s shortlist

Continuing from Alan’s selected images for our shortlist to find the winner of our photography competition, here are the choices along with her comments, from the second of our judges, Allegra.

 Rob Wood

Not only did the maker capture a rare natural phenomena in a nice location, not always possible when these things happen, especially when traveling, but he then carefully composed the photo to draw the viewer in to see texture of a nearby rooftop, all the way out to the entire village and beyond. I also like that in the composition, the horizon line is not at the center of the image, but rather brought up a little higher in the image. A nice way to show a landscape, weather and nature, and a place.

Tracy Ann Marshall

I like that there is a person who might very well be a resident of this neighborhood in this image.

It would be wonderful to see her face, even turned to the side, but I like the way the photo was taken overall, with her jaunty body language while walking.

One small nitpick, I would have waited a moment so that there might be more separation between her head and background elements of balconies and structures so her entire figure stands apart amongst them.

I love her against the colors of the alley and buildings.

 Eugene Butterworth

Nice light, colors that match the birds and lovely interaction amongst the birds. The reflection is nice … I would have just moved a tad, if possible to include their heads in the reflections, but it all works.

Georgina Sherman

Seeing humour in life is important and capturing it is, too! I would love to see just a little more of the landscape around this building to show the neighborhood where this dog lived …. but otherwise, delightful moment captured, one that could very well have been very fleeting.

Anca Cernoschi, Barcelona

This is a busy image with no one place to look, and that is OK – I like the feel and expanse of it, with the active girls and the bubbles and the fact that it’s in black and white. I like the emotions it conveys, which is a sense of fun and exuberance.

Jacob Banks, Barcelona

This photo says Barcelona to me. I visited there earlier in 2015, and recognized it before seeing where it was taken in the title. The feel of this image captures the way it feels to be in Barcelona; there is a combination of modern and old architecture and graffiti on all of it. Lots of places to stroll and bicycle and it’s a bustling, fashionable, classic and also timeless city.

Do leave a comment below and tell us which are your favourites and why!

It’s now time for an unashamed plug for Exclusive City Breaks the sponsors of this competition, if you enjoyed entering or following this competition do please take a moment to ‘like’ their Facebook page. And please, next time you are travelling or looking for hotels anywhere in the world do please give them a try. You won’t regret it, click here to find out why!

About Allegra

Allegra is a New York native, she is a freelance photographer in New Hampshire and an accomplished and award winning photojournalist. She has been taking photos since she was a child, taught first by her father; and, while she was an English major in college, also studied photography and art history; including some masters work in photography and visual communication. Alan first met Allegra when he taught photography for a season at Buck’s Rock camp in Connecticut, she was a very keen and enthusiastic 14 year old at the time who spent most of the summer quietly working away in the darkroom.
View Allegra’s website.

Link to Alan’s shortlist

Link to Steve’s shortlist

Alan Gandy

Alan, along with Elle, is the owner of Spain Buddy. He was born in the North of England (Lancashire) and travelled extensively before eventually settling in Almería. Alan has 3 sons from the first of his 18 marriages, (Sam, Joe & Ben) who are all now adults. You can read more articles by Alan on his personal blog at AlanGandy.com and see more of his photography on his photography website as well as on Flickr and Instagram.
Also, for less than the price of a cup of coffee each month you can help support Alan’s photography (and get some freebies into the bargain). Click here to visit his Patreon page to find out more.