First of all, let me say that this was extremely hard to judge and pick winners. I liked so many of the photos. There certainly is a ton of quality and creativity displayed in the images entered. I chose this topic because I am relatively new to HDR and don't consider myself to be that good at it yet. I wanted to see and be inspired by what others were doing and I was not disappointed. I think I could have chosen 5 different 1st place images! I really had to search hard for small flaws to eliminate most of the ones I did not choose. I encourage everyone to look at the large version of these and all the other images entered.
Congratulations to all the participants for making this a phenomenal competition!
Honorable Mention- in no particular order
This one I noticed and really liked the subtle light effects in the foreground rocks and the great lighting in the clouds. Nice to see HDR in B&W.
I can't imagine how hard it was to get this one this perfect - both pano and HDR at the same time. Masterful capture of all the detail and light and color
This one certainly screams "India" to me. The colors and textures were very captivating and eye catching.
This one is a real WOW!!! Great composition and one that is helped so much by the HDR bringing out the color and detail.
Who would not be proud to have created this? The brilliant colors and interesting lines of the track and the tank cars really draw you into the image.
Great idea for a use of HDR, with excellent composition and a perfect title. The late afternoon light and the brilliant color were captured extremely well.
This looks like something out of a dream. Superb handling of the motion in the water and keeping the clouds very realistic looking.
The single tone mapping method on this was very effective. I just can't stop looking at the wild purple lighting flares!
The color and lighting quality of this image are amazing. Great technique for capturing deserted places like this.
3rd Place
The fisheye effect, incredible color, detail and light capture and the infinite ways this image led me into, arround and out of it made this the third place winner.
2nd Place
I had an extremely hard time eliminating your other 2 images. Both of them had a delightful, ethereal feel and great light and composition. I chose this one because of the awesome detail and color. It felt like being in a Lord of the Rings movie or something. Very nice images!
1st Place
Again I had a very hard time choosing this over your Dubai image. Both had mind blowing capture of lighting detail and tones. I was totally blown away by the quality of your images