Judge: Sean McGowan

Note: Images were scored in five criteria, each worth a maximum five points.

The criteria were: 1. People in Relevant Context (Environmental Portraiture)

2. Newsworthiness of the event or story

3. Impact of the Image

4. Composition

5. Lighting and exposure

In the case of a tie, weighting was given to Impact

WINNER:

#1238 Centralian Today, Phil Williams

“Hang On”

Capturing the decisive moment is always the goal of sports photographers and Williams caught this instant perfectly. His jaw dropping image, featured on the front page of Centralian Today, provokes feelings of awe and fear in the viewer, and possibly wonder that the rider survived.

The unpredictable nature of rodeo events adds to the difficulty of extreme action captures but, in low quality light, Williams nailed focus on the bull’s eye at the height of the massive creature's extraordinary leap, just a split second before the rider fell. His timing was impeccable.

RUNNER UP:

#1279 Yorke Peninsula Country Times, Rod Penna

“Flippin Good”

A wonderful image by Penna capturing the celebration of a young footballer after kicking a goal. Shot in late afternoon light, the clarity of focus is perfect on the subject’s eye and the overall impact is high, given the subject’s orientation.

THIRD:

#1228 Murray Valley Standard, William Bailey

“Reaching for Every Point”

A great tennis shot with the player airborne, unusually horizontal. Focus and composition is accurate but exposure is slightly over. When shooting in direct summer sun it can be helpful to set exposure compensation to minus one third (-1/3 EV) to protect the highlights.

… HONORABLE MENTIONS: (next page)

SPECCKY of the YEAR:

#1170 Port Lincoln Times, Jack Davies

Each year we see numerous excellent shots of speckies and this amazing leap captured by Davies rates an honourable mention as the Specky Photo of the Year.

SPORTS HEADLINE of the YEAR

#1153 Eyre Peninsula Advocate

Referring to young Byron Pickett Jr kicking 100 goals for the year, the wordsmiths at The Advocate coined a ripper with this:

“Ton of fun for son of a gun”

Just too good to go unmentioned!