There's going to be a bit of a dither here. Most of the images under consideration come from the noir detective photo session with Michelle and Antje. If you somehow missed them along the way, you can see the noir detectives here, and the Antje portrait photos here.
There's a bit of a fork in the road for me making this choice. It boils down to, which photos is the best photo of a person, and subtly different, which photo best captures the image and mood that was in my head as we worked through the session?
Plus I'm sort of breaking one of my rules. I try to not have variations of the same photo, which is why you don't see the other version of what ended up as IotM.
This was one of the most fun times I've had with a camera. They were totally into the story and we all worked together to get these fabulous images. Even after seeing the almost abstract images that started the whole thing, they were surprised at how different the images looked compared to what their eyes saw. These images will certainly be in the running for Image of the Year.
Honourable mention.
I don't often do this. But this one is such a striking image, although it didn't match what was in my head for the photo session. We were playing with light, getting warmed up. Sometimes serendipity happens.
2nd Runner Up
This was while we were getting warmed up and playing with light, getting a sense of who these characters are.
1st Runner Up
By now Antje had relaxed and was having fun with it. There's a colour version that brings up the red in her hair, but that distracts from the twinkle in her eye, and the 'I know something you don't' smile.
Image of the Month
In the end, I went with the one that matched the image in my head. There's one very similar to this one (#5 in the link above) that Michelle likes. Let's just say there was a lot of dithering. In the end, the image is about her, and not the textures of the hat or coat.
