Tulip - 42pts, First place

Gary McGhee, Merseyside Nikon D200, 90mm macro, 1/13sec at f/5 Gary, 41, who is a chemical worker in the organometallic industry, shoots mostly landscapes and was a bit intimidated by this round, he admits. For this image, Gary placed a tulip in an old milk bottle on a table next to a window. ‘I then used a large sheet of black card behind the flower for a clean background,’ he says. Gary used only the available window light and later made some Levels and Contrast adjustments on the computer before toning the image and cropping it to a square.' Judges say 'Gary has done a tremendous job. Less is more, as they say, and the simplicity of this image is what’s most striking - the clean black background and the subtlety of the tones. The quality is amazing.'