A very atmospheric shot Clive, well done.

My upper is 'at the end of the day' by Peter. I liked the shot which gained impact the more I looked at it. My downer is 'A view from my office' by Himself. As a small boat sailor myself, the view is pretty awesome and I'm not sure I would like to be out there under sail! However I felt it was a little short subject matter as a photo.

Basically, I think we were all outclassed this fortnight, by a clear winner and a pretty spectacular shot.

Graham

I was between your shot and the winner shot,though i voted to your shot Graham,the winner shot artistically is very good too ;)

Well done Clive, loved it from the start - no ups/downs as I didn't enter

Thank you everyone for the fabulous feedback & the votes - I think that's the most I've ever polled. I'll get a fresh challenge set to take us into the new year in the next 24 hours.

Up & Downs
My Up - A view from my office by Himself - as graham says it probably needed a bit more interest. Perhaps a shot of one of the crew at the helm... of if you're it as far a crew goes then perhaps a 'selfie'

My Down - At the end of the day by Peter - an interesting approach to the subject - but difficult lighting conditions, might have been worth trying as an HDR to bring some more detail.

Behind the Scenes

At first look you may not realise how the whole shot was a complete set up. The 'model' is my daughter wearing my high heels (don't ask ;) ) & we shot this in an unlit tunnel going under the A38. Lighting was provided by my EX580 flash with a reflector & honeycomb grid to control the spread of light mounted on a hand held lighting stand & fired with a remote trigger & the self timer.

Apeture set at f2.8 to throw the tunnel in the distance out of focus, exposure was bit trial & error adjusting the flash power until I got it right. Positioning the light above my daughter also required a bit of experimentation - with it directly above her head there was too much hard shadow & I found the best position was about 3 feet nearer the camera position to throw some light on her hair.

Having got that shot, three more shots were taken moving down the tunnel with just the flash to make the other 'lights' The four best shots were stacked in photoshop, I cloned myself out & revealed each light with layer masks. Finally flatten & convert to B&W with Silver Efex Pro

clear winner deservedly

Great imagination and superbly executed - but why do you posses high heels ?

that was a lot of work Clive, thanks for the explanation, well deserved win.

I said - don't ask ;)

I fell for it hook(er) line and sinker!:) Never even thought it was anything but a well executed candid. We live and learn.