AG|WPJA The Artistic Guild of the WPJA

Judges Comment: The bride steps into the light, spilling over the threshold, as her dress blends into the high-key scene. The diffusion is neither too little nor too much - just enough to create a scene of mysterious possibilities.

Judges Comment: The sheer cloth filters our view of the bride, softening her features. She has become a porcelain doll, a Geisha, a symbol of whatever we choose. Perhaps that's why I liked this image. We are invited to dream and imagine the stunning simplicity of a moment.

Judges Comment: The "tilt-shift" blur handily accentuates the entry point of this image and leads us to the studious efforts of a bride preparing for the ceremony. It's an illustration of how well photographic effects can work when they support the underlying structure of an image. They should be translators of mood and feeling without distracting from the moment.

Judges Comment: I like the flat, one-dimensional feel to this image. It echoes the stereotypical view of makeup as superficial window dressings. The woman waiting in the chair provides a focal anchor for this image with her seemingly disinterested gaze beneath that bundle of red hair.

Judges Comment: The compositional symmetry of this image is obviously a major aspect of its appeal, but what really brings it together are the colors. Those pink shoes leave no doubt about which one of the four will be at center stage this day.

Judges Comment: This a delightfully interesting photograph. Everyone in the scene is doing something with their hands. Think of it as visual information "symmetry." The photo begins with the man at left. His expression not immediately clear. He appears tired. But as the image unfolds from left to right it is more likely that the man at left is feeling stressed. I liked the layered continuity of this image that presents a pinch of discomfort with a dash of awkward stress.

Judges Comment: The child at left playing dress-up mirrors the woman at right…one in fantasy and the other facing reality. It presents a poignant facet of the cycle of life - from child to adult. How appropriate that a mirror is before each - the child indifferent to the mirror's presence as the woman reflects.

Judges Comment: This is a wonderful storytelling moment. The bride becomes our entry into the image leading us across the pensive gaze of the woman and the contrasting visage of a man grimacing with a squint at his watch. The time has come and the bride waits to exit.

Judges Comment: The sepia tone adds to the ageless scene. The moment is quiet, perhaps even serene. Yet bathed in the light, surrounded by darkness, the bride becomes a classic.

Judges Comment: The shallow depth of field and the strong vertical lines in this image accentuate visual information. The crosses hanging on the mirror lead our eyes to a doll and an image of what appears to be Jesus or a saint. There is so much going on at the right of the photo that the girl at left is almost as furtive in the image as she was in the moment.

Judges Comment: The groom adjusts his tie before the mirror as he waits for a ceremony that marks a new stage in his life while the clowning faces at left peer through the door. The stark difference in mood and feeling, from one side of the image to the other, helps create a moment of visual irony and suggests a narrative of the changes we face in life.

Judges Comment: Here's a delightful photo that veers from more traditional forms of photojournalism's objectivity. This image follows a more subjective style. The woman in the mirror, the man with shades (that mimic the shape of his tie), the bride obscured in the car - all framed between light and dark. It's an image that made me think of a bowl of alphabet soup giving new letters and words with each dip of the spoon.

Judges Comment: Everything here speaks to elsewhere like that feeling of disconnect experienced during a prolonged wait. Even the lone hanger of formal attire waits. I like the composition of this image - a relaxed, perhaps even "detached" landscape style crammed with subtle nuance.

Judges Comment: It's those paintings on the wall that help join two moments into one. Both bride and child are attended to by someone else. They are separated by room and moments in time, yet connected by the narrative in those paintings between them, unfolding from bride to child.

Judges Comment: The cork is sent flying, the wedding party recoils and the moment is recorded for posterity. Light and color accentuate the moment and navigate our eyes through a maze of shapes and forms until we land at the key elements of the action.

Judges Comment: A burst of diffused radiance surrounds the bride. The high-key approach, framed by the darker edges, reveals her bathed in light as bright as her delighted smile.

Judges Comment: As he struggles with his tie, framed in a mirror surrounded by more frames, a visual narrative of family and tradition is suggested. Everything is past tense in the room but for one - the present work of his fingers threading the tie. Perhaps one day the images from this wedding might hang on that wall - preserved as a personal icon of family history.

Judges Comment: Their hands, almost joined but not just yet, tell a story as romantic as their gaze. The sparse simplicity of the room, compositionally balanced with the painting, isolates them. There is little else to consider in this image, just like the couple who, at least for now, consider nothing but one another.

Judges Comment: The bridal bouquet she holds has become the focal point of a tableau of wedding symbols in this photo. The dress, the veil, the bride and groom and their attendants - all obscured, are anchored together by those flowers no less than the ribbon that binds its verdant stems.

Judges Comment: This image makes me feel uncomfortable. Mental images of life challenges connect me to this uneasy state. A stream of memories become my narrative for this moment. "What do I do? Will I be enough to meet the challenge?" "Yes. I must." "There is only one way out. I must face it and move on." "I must be the best I can be today. " Imagine the power of an image. The magic is how light and composition can record a fleeting moment and create a universal narrative.