Our four finalists, as selected by a panel of our site administrators, have chosen the following four photos as the top four contenders for the title. Please vote for one of these as the photo-of-the-year, and await as the results get compiled. The voting will be open until the middle of the month so you all have time to get your vote in.

The four finalists are:
February 2012:
Francis Drake and the English Fleet

March 2012:
Reflections in a Pool

April 2012:
The Penitents

November 2012:
The Canal at Maesbury in the Autumn Sunshine

Good luck to all the participants, and thank you to everyone who took part throughout the year. There are really some amazing photos that you've all posted.

Oh this is so hard. Each one of them is a brilliant photo.

I so agree Christina, it is so hard. The choices detract in no way from so many beautiful amazing, funny, clever and brilliant pictures in the forum over the last year. It has been mind blowing at times, and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be a part of this great group of clever clever people. Thanks to all.I want to thank Jill and Leo for their support and especially Leo for this poll and its organisation.
Thanks also to admins for their support, Sue for her tolerance and Terry for offering a prize. Above all thanks for the wonderful contributions and the comments which encourage us so much. We couldn't do it without you. I would like to thank My Mum and Dad, my lovely family , my dog Gnawra and my cat Rosie who have contributed in their way. Thanks also to all the animals who seem to play a large part in this area of FT. Thanks,Woof, Baa,Cheep,Cluck and Meow to you all. Ren.

Great speech Ren.

Best speech I've heard in a long time! (So says Precious, too!)

It's been fun participating in this forum this year. Good luck to the finalists. You give us all something to 'shoot' (groan) for.

This multiple choice is more difficult than a particularly difficult round in the Impossible Game in Global Challenge. Hardcore. And that's a fact.

What a splendid idea and such a difficult choice. I can see that it will be very close when the results are published.

I know, I had such a job making my mind up, they are all so good.

Have you voted yet?

I have voted, I finally made up my mind

Gah, it is hard... But I've made up my mind.
...And nicely done Ren.

Well Leo did most of it. The admins chose the final 4. Jill, Leo and I chose the months. Blame Chavs for having the idea. It is all of you that made the choices so diverse and lovely.

Very impressive finalists, it was good to have one of mine in there as well, and after whittling down to two picked the one I'd probably put on the wall.

I've finally managed to make up my mind too.

I only just noticed this because I've been busy working this month. Some really good photos here. Voted now.

Thanks for bringing this thread up, Dot. Voting ends on Tuesday 18th, so go for it!

Voting ends today, Ren!

Even so, it is still the 15th here for several more hours

OK, we will give the rest of the world a few hours to catch up..

Not quite the all of the rest of the world, Ozzz

Wow. To have one of my photos nominated for this final is breath-taking. I'm delighted and thrilled. But mostly humbled in the presence of so many fantastic photographers.

I haven't posted any new photos for a little while as I'm away doing field work and forgot the cable to connect the camera to the laptop....

Oooops! Sorry Yes of course, Liz, as always we will wait for everyone.

Well done everyone, it was a tough choice, and a very high standard....and thank you Ren and Leo, and of course judges, for making it happen.


I can see the results...so is it over and ...

I can see the winner!


Heartfelt Congratulations!

It's a truly stunning photo and very worthy of the title.

A worthy winner indeed It is a fantastic photo Well done!

Congratulations!

Congratulations from me, too.

A very beautiful photo! Well done and congratulations!

Well done, a worthy winner indeed from a very lovely group of photos.

A lovely photo! Who does it belong to?

Congratulations, Dotb, for a great photo!

Congratulations to DotB for the win in the photo-of-the-year contest. It was truly a wonderful photograph as were all of the photos that were shortlisted, and all the ones that were posted to all of our threads this year. Thank you to all of you for participating in this, and for making the Photography forum the amazing place that it is. Thanks as well to all of the 52 people who voted.

Thank you to my fellow moderators Copago and Ren for helping me put this together, and to our panel of judges who picked the finalists. I hope that we can make this an annual thing, and I look forward to another year filled with brilliant photography from everybody.

Congratulations, DotB

Yeah, come on, you gotta give the rest of us a chance.

Personally, I'd rather our forum remained a friendly place for sharing photos instead of a contest, but I guess that is just me, eh.

Thank you all very much for the vote I can't believe I won against such good photos.

Thank you again.

Many congratulations.

... post removed by me, because it was either worded too harshly or was so long (bad habit lol) that some folks might not have read the whole diatribe. Those things could certainly have led some people to miss my main points - which were that a celebration is much different than a contest with voting/posted results/reward etc. And, most importantly, that everyone is a winner here : )

I don't think it was meant as a competition, I think it was meant more in the spirit of admiration, and a way to express it.

But I think Jake makes some worthwhile points. Sometimes a photo that wouldn't win a "contest" per se can be more fun, uplifting, or interesting than one that potentially would, and a huge part of the fun of the photo threads is watching the interesting stories being told - and feeling free to share them.

I second the thanks to EVERYONE - my day is always better for visiting the photo thread.

So taking all that into account, if the photo of the year idea continues, perhaps it should be run as a competition proper -- something that people could choose to enter specifically, on a separate thread. One entry per month maybe, so in total 12 max per person, with the committee shortlisting, or maybe it should be themed, or have some sort of guidelines...just thinking aloud. Choosing a "winner" is always going to be subjective, of course.

Now, I hope that doesn't take away from the glory of Dotb's award -- it's a really beautiful picture. You can almost feel the sun!

Congrats DotB!

This is exactly what I have been thinking. I purposely do not enter competitions, and as Ren knows I actually was contemplating never posting another photo if this were to become a regular "competition". I have come to my senses on that score, but a dedicated competition thread each month would make it even easier. Jakeroo and Chavs have said almost everything I have been feeling, so thanks guys

"I don't think it was meant as a competition, I think it was meant more in the spirit of admiration, and a way to express it. "
Absolutely that's what was intended.Thanks Chavs.
The last thing intended by any of us was to create any problems or rock our lovely , friendly super-streamlined boat.
I am speaking out for all of us, therefore in saying it was a one-off comp.
Even so, thanks for all who made it worthwhile as just this: A celebration of our great efforts, all of us!.

I missed all the recent goings on here so with a deleted thread have had some level of back-engineering to do, but by coincidence the Ordnance Survey site I have contributed to since soon after going digital automatically enters our photos into a competition, I never took much notice until someone provided a personal chart and saw none of mine had been short listed (from around 6000 per week) let alone won, and maybe a year later one was which ultimately won, and saw an earlier one had also been shortlisted earlier in the year. Having contributed nearly 9,000 photos you can imagine how pleased I was, it may be in the conditions we sign up to but even if not once I'd added my photos to a site unless they sold them and pocketed the money they could do what they liked with them. And the winner picks the next week so I have now been on both sides twice!

Anyway, having said that congratulations to DotB, a worthy winner! And lighten up everybody