Today's the day!

[Sarasocke]

I must say I really like the winner, but then Icelandic horses are really high on my favourite animal list - I used to ride them.
The photos in the Planet Earth category are all super, I love the swans.

This is Britain - well now we know, we really are either drunken slobs, old and poor or overweight and boozy.

[Hinfrance]

I'm the opposite of Carol, although I think the winner is a fine photograph (and any one of hundreds could have been chosen, they have to pick someone) wildlife pictures just don't float my boat. And perhaps they should have a comp next year for cameras costing less than the national debt.

I think that overall the choices are somewhat better than last year's travesty, but I am struggling to understand how a couple of the category winners fit the brief, in particular the Destination Everywhere winner. Great picture, but it doesn't say travel to me it, it says religion. The black and whites are pretty average too imho.

Oldboy, it does look like Iceland is the place to take your entry for next year - last year there was a category winner from there too.

[greypoint]

The judges, of course, only have the shortlist to pick from so it's always going to be a winner from someone else's original choice. Overall I thought the nature category was good and the shortlisted pictures competent stuff but only a few seemed to have that extra something. We all have our favourites when it comes to subject I suppose.

[Jonathan]

I've wanted to go to Iceland for years.  The winner does nothing to cure me of that

Reminds me of Tim Flach's pics - which is no bad thing at all.

[ABERS]

Sue makes the valid comment about short lists, so don't shoot the judges, they are presented with images chosen by a very mediocre bunch of so called photographic experts.

The winning picture is very unexciting, scanning through the rest of the images I think there are others that could easily have been chosen as the 'top shot'. My favourite is the second placed picture in the under 10 category of JPOTY. What a fertile mind that young person must have, along with trusting parents allowing him/her to play around a swimming pool with some high tech camera in hand!

B+W category is disappointing, and not being much of a landscaper I'm surprised that the same bloke got 1st and 2nd place with the usual low angle shot and the overmanipulated green and pleasant land cliche, looks like slow speed rock strewn beaches have had their day.

Ah well congratulations to the winners and commiserations to the whiners!

All in all

[greypoint]

Mmm perhaps the winner is not exciting - to those whose tastes are elsewhere anyway - but it does have the advantage of being, in itself at least, not as controversial as previous years. I'm sure there are those busily googling to find another shot it's been copied from!
Perhaps its also a case of this one being a picture everyone could agree on liking but others had one judge being really positive but others more negative about it? Agree about the landscapes often being a bit OTT. The one I liked was a bluebell wood with sunlight through the trees - not spectacular but evocative.

[Oldboy]

The one I liked was the cave shot but needs to be seen full size. It would look fantastic printed as A0 or A1. Some do look like they have gone over the top with the help of photoshop, but most of the photos have been good and varied which hasn't been the case in past years. 

[picsfor]

I finally went and found ithem. That site doesn't get any better.

What i noticed that some pictures from Hong Kong were listed amongst the places - as predicted in earlier discussions.
Tim Wallace's shot was very nice - but not his best work (my opinion).

Not all are of my choosing - but generally they are all very well taken.

As for OTT Photoshopping - sadly it is a fact of life and Photoshop skills of today are the equivalent of dark room skills of yesterday.
And how many can remember the debates over whether a picture had been to 'over processed' in the dark room?

[ABERS]

Looks like it's happening all over again!

http://www.photoradar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8754#post8754

[picsfor]

Well at least it solves the problem of next years competition.
No one will be eligible! 

[greypoint]

Many of these problems might be solved if it was a true POTY contest - photos to be taken for the contest during one month and uploaded for judging during the next month - rather than just being able to upload anything that you've had on your hard drive for several years.

[Sarasocke]

Or at least within 12 months of closing date.

[Nemesis]

Now its starting to resemble the site and forum that we knew 

On the subject of over processing, in the old days of wet darkrooms and resultant photos, I really don't recall looking at countless images that looked as if they had been taken on an alien planet 

[Oldboy]

On the subject of over processing, in the old days of wet darkrooms and resultant photos, I really don't recall looking at countless images that looked as if they had been taken on an alien planet 

Yes, but in them days no one knew what a alien looked like! 

[ABERS]

Looks like it's happening all over again!

http://www.photoradar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8754#post8754

I didn't know whether to post this in Joke of the Day, but look who's got in to the act now.