After Dark competition brings out the best in Camera Club members

As winter begins to bite, more and more of our activity goes on after dark, and our entries this month reflected that with a great variety of shots ranging from the colourful to the moody to the downright surreal.

Every month we choose a broad theme which we invite our club members to interpret in whatever way they see fit - and, as always, they have provided a wonderful showcase of their talents.

Congratulations to Gary Allan whose picture of the Forster Square archways won him the prize.

Here's a rundown (in no particular order) on all 12 shortlisted pictures which you can view in the gallery above...

Gary Allan

The winner of the #Afterdark competition, Gary Allan’s picture of Forster Square archways at night, features colours from the greens of the arches, yellows from the sodium street lights and the blues from the office windows above, all balancing each other around the two organic sculptures below. The image has confidence to sit the sculpture in the city space, keeping it in the Bradford we know, yet it shows us Bradford in a new way.

Gemma Fox

Gemma Fox chose to look away from the event and saw something else. I’ll guess this picture is of the Festival of Light, but the rippling water on the mirror pool becomes a mass of colour and shape organically blended into one another like shimmering liquid.

Mark Davis

I’m okay with heights normally. Mark Davis’s image, taken during the redevelopment of the city centre before the park and the pool, is a wonderful view only just above the streets. The blue of the evening light as the night comes on is contrasted by the warmth of the street lights. The nightly battle between the coming darkness and the amber street lights begins.

Paul Richards

The purple colour the sky has gone behind Paul Richards’ image adds a majesty to the wildlife grazing on the horizon. The peaceful sky and the outline of the animals combine in a glimpse of a world which happens every night without us knowing or seeing.

Khalid M Malik

I enjoy the way cameras, and especially lenses, do things to light on long exposures that I don’t fully understand. The exposure by Khalid M Malik in City Park matches the star-shaped sculpture on the left with a galaxy of star-shaped streetlight versions on the right. The elongated image could suffer from balance but the collection of matching shapes and colours lend it coherence.

Simon Pickles

Something funny is going on up at Rossendale. Simon Pickles’ Halo is a fun mixture of the structure, careful exposure, additional lighting and the subtle use of a fish eye lens. The combination creates this striking image of something you couldn’t be sure didn’t land there all by itself.

Amanda Hatherley

A snatched kiss by night in Amanda Hatherley’s ‘Wedding Kiss’ is a fun image of night-time. The couple lit from the side appear unaware of the camera, stealing an excited kiss after dark.

Stephen Dinsdale

We are all familiar with the Ribblehead viaduct, but beyond this is a scene even bigger. Stephen Dinsdale's image takes what we'd normally see, the stonework arches sheltering between Yorkshire peaks, and makes it into a stunning spectacle of the night sky. It makes the human creation seem rather small by comparison.

Simon Paul Sugden

Simon's image is one for those who rub their hands together when they see texture and tone in deep rich blacks. The skill in making an image from a subject some would walk right past is what makes photography great. His eye saw something, and the craft of making such a rich image never failed to result in approving noises from whoever saw it.

Neil Terry

Neil's picture isn't the typical vision of the funfair. The choice of tone makes this modern view look like a historical photograph. The movement streaking into a fantastical blur of lights further confuses the impression of time passing, to a point where all references to which period in history we're looking at start to disappear.

Wei Xin Liang

This is a deceptively simple image, but it brings the wonders of the universe right to your back door. Just beyond Wei's bathroom window our planet spins in space and the use of the star trails as movement, centred around the pole star, brings to a quiet urban scene the sense of there being something bigger happening while we were brushing our teeth.

Jason Feather

Jason Feather's image of the drummers during the Christmas light switch-on plays with scale and the idea of toys. I loved the fact that these little Silver men could be any size at all. The high key black and white becomes silver. It's like a set of Christmas gifts illuminated from inside as if glowing.

If you’d like to get in on the action, you can join the Camera Club via our T&A Camera Club Facebook group - you’ll find it linked from our main Facebook page at facebook.com/telegraphandargus.