Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2009 Shortlist

Philosopher - Christian Oeser, Austria

Sorting through over 100,000 entries, the judges from The Digital Camera Photographer of the Year competition had a tough task at hand. How do you select the most captivating and creative pictures from such a large pool? Split into 10 categories including People and Portraits, Landscapes, World in Motion, Digital Vision and more, the photos had to "capture a powerful sense of place" and "be original and striking." The judges were looking for "images with impact" that "revealed the spirit of the character." They wanted to feel that moment - where light, color and composition came together perfectly.

The editors skillfully pared down their list and came up with the top images that now appear on PhotoRadar. Here, I've selected thirty of my favorites.

Monkey Business - Yusri Yusof, Malaysia

Cousins - Phil Hargreaves, UK

Waving Polar Bear - Hans Strand, Sweden

Provenza - Fabio Del Ghianda, Italy

Das Feld - Robert Jung, Netherlands

Portrait of a Tree - Marcin Stawiarz, UK

The Weather I Love - Paolo De Faveri, Italy

Early-morning Geometries - Tiberio Taverni, Italy

Mona Rush - Tim Donnelly, Australia

Rainforest - Lin Joe Yin, Malaysia

Fearless - Shui Kee Janet Yim, Hong Kong

Life in Motion - Cumhur Kaplan, Turkey

Behind a Waterfall - Konstantin Shcherbak, Iceland

Tunnel - Maciej Dakowicz, UK

The Pacu Jawi (Cow's Race) - Muhammad Fadli, Indonesia

It Rained - Naqib Albar, Malaysia

Glass City - Christian Oeser, Austria

Vortex - Giles McGarry, UK

How Mountains Are Made - Sabina Dimitriu, Romania

Fringe - Brooke Shaden, United States

Free Fallen - Carmen Moreno, Venezuela

Storm in a Teacup - Malcolm Hide, UK

Underground - Paul Mooney, UK

Look Left - Mike Sabarre, Philippines

Sailing in Antarctic Ice - Jonathan Green, Ecuador

Don't Give Up! - Shui Kee Janet Yim, Hong Kong

Just a Few More Steps - Ronen Golan, Israel

A Kiss in Time - Stuart Glossop, UK

Stripes - Gabor Pozsgai, UK

Telegraph:
"In the space of 20 weeks, the world’s biggest photo contests, Digital Camera magazine’s Photographer of the Year, received a massive 101,000 online entries from 126 countries.The overall £10,000 prize winner will be announced at the exhibition of winning and commended entries, taking place at Mall Galleries, London. The exhibit will be open to the public from the 9th – 13th December."

See more at PhotoRadar.