Today I’m going to give my personal favorites in a bunch of different categories, from images that didn’t become one of the finalists or the Grand Prize winner, but I felt were so great that they deserved some recognition as well.

Here’s what so amazing to me about all this. If the winning images you saw yesterday, and here today, were entered in a regular photo contest, none of us would blink an eye—-a great image is a great image. But most contest allow you to choose any photo from your entire lifetime of shooting, or perhaps any photo taken in the last year, or any photo in a particular category. But in this case, here’s what the photographers were up against.

• They were not able to choose the location (it was chosen for them).
• They were not able to choose the time of day (it was chosen for them).
• They were only able to shoot for two hours.
• They shot in the light that was there. They couldn’t go back later (or earlier) in better light.

Yet they came away that images that are inspiring, creative, and in many cases, breathtaking! That’s what makes this so special. Two hours. That’s it. And look what they came up with! To me, that makes these images, and the ones chosen yesterday, all the more amazing.

Before we get to seeing some images, there were some recurring themes in the types of photos that where picked by local winners, and went into judging to become finalists. For example, there were:

• Lots of HDR shots
• Lots of shots of other Photo Walk photographers
• Lots of shots of reflections
• Lots of shots of homeless people
• Lots of shots of children
• Lots of bees landing on flowers
• Lots of people seen through store windows
• Lots of Bridges
• Lots of Churches (inside and out)
• Lots of shots of statues and art
• Lots of shots of stairs
• Lots of train shots

Anyway, it gives you an broad view of what people wound up shooting a lot of.

The images that follow are my favorites that didn’t make their way into the prize category, but are nonetheless deserving of recognition:

BEST REFLECTION SHOT
“Reflection of Thai”
by Jakkrit Koompaisawad (Muang, Thailand)

BEST USE OF HDR
“Punta Gorda Gas Station”
by Bill Conway (Punta Gorda, Florida)

BEST SHOT WITH TOO MUCH HDR BUT I LIKED IT ANYWAY
“Steeplechase Face”
by Brian Matiash (Brooklyn-Coney Island, New York)

BEST HDR SHOT THAT DOESN’T SCREAM “IT’S AN HDR SHOT!”
“The Arcade”
By Tom Bower (Cleveland, Ohio)

BEST B&W
“Windows”
by Les Doerfler (Washington, DC)

BEST MACRO SHOT
Flower with Bee’
by Don Tredinnick (Saint Paul, Minnesota)

BEST LANDSCAPE SHOT THAT NEEDS A LEVELS ADJUSTMENT
Vermillion Lake Sunrise
By Peter Carroll (Banff, Alberta, Canada)

BEST USE OF COLOR
‘Faz’
by Andrew Morley (London Southbank, England)

BEST DUOTONE
“Waiting for Water”
by Shamir Karim (Dhaka Gulistan, Bangladesh)

BEST SHOT I LOVE BUT CAN’T EXPLAIN WHY
“Day by Day”
by Jacek Glogowski (Krakow, Poland)

BEST CAR SHOT
‘Thunderbirds’
by Shelly Wynecoop (Spokane, Washington)

BEST REALLY BLURRY SHOT OF A COUPLE IN A TUNNEL WITH GRAFFITI
‘Tunnel Vision’ (above)
by Eric Parks (Blue Ridge, North Carolina)

BEST SHOT OF SOMEBODY’S FEET
‘Wading’
by Fred Moses (Boston, Massachusetts)

BEST SHADOWY SHOT
“No, It Is Not A Gun!”
by Nemanja Jovanovic (Belgrade, Serbia)

BEST ‘CUTSIE’ SHOT THAT MAKES YOU SMILE
‘Hitchhiking On A Mural’
by Hugh Smith (Burnsville, North Carolina)

BEST SHOT OF THING I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS
‘Augers’
by Jerry Ranch (Des Moines, Iowa)

BEST PHOTO WITH PAINTING EFFECT
‘Photowalk Tugs’
by Landya McCafferty (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)

BEST PATTERN SHOT
‘The Stairs On Mirror Lake’
by Trenton Moore (Lakeland, FL)

BEST SHOT OF ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPHER FROM THE PHOTO WALK
‘Sunset’
by Panot Tangsucharit (Khon Kaen Provine, Thailand)

BEST SHOT THAT LOOKS LIKE IT WOULD BE HANGING IN A REALLY NICE HOTEL LOBBY
‘Sinuousity’
by Nick Heaphy (Christchurch, New Zealand)

BEST FLOATING PEOPLE SHOT
‘Dancing on Air’
by Nicola Corboy (Cashel, Ireland)

BEST USE OF PHOTOSHOP EFFECT SHOT
“Paradise Lost”
by Don Johnson (Boise City, Idaho)

BEST STILL LIFE
“Glasses”
by Ernesto Campana Jr. (San Pedro, Philippines)

BEST SHOT THAT DROVE BY
“Passing Smiles”
By Adrian Bailey (Brisbane City, Australia)

BEST MOODY SHOT
“Dreary Day”
by Chris Lazzery (Ogunquit, Maine)

BEST SHOT THROUGH A WINDOW
“Al Faisaliah Tower”
By Thamer Altassan (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

BEST HAPPY SHOT
“Terrazza Mascagni”
by Franco Catalucci (Livorno, Italy)

BEST WARM COLORS SHOT
“Both Sides of the Track”
by Mike Toth (Bridgetown, Western Australia)

BEST SHOT I CAN’T STOP LOOKING AT
“After Hours Apothecary”
by William Palank (San Francisco, Chinatown, California)

My sincere congratulations to all these fantastic photographers whose work I really felt deserved some extra recognition.