With many thanks to Justin Cliffe for the adjudication.

A small, but excellent, selection of images to review this month -and from right around the world.

I have, after much thought and consideration, selected as my Image of the Month:

Winner: Venice by Andrew Flannigan

This is an interesting, and in some ways, unusual view of Venice - showing two sides of the city, one that we always associate with it - the tourists, the bridge & canal and the colourful boat - and the other, less often seen, the homeless man with all his possessions around him. 

It’s well composed, helped by the layers that the photographer has created - the man, dominant in the foreground, the perfectly positioned seagull on the left, the coloured boat. and then the couple in the background.

A thought-provoking, well-timed and well-taken image which tells a story - and gives us a real ’sense of place’, showing that Venice is not all gondolas, canals and tourists.

I also have three Highly Commendeds, which are, in no particular order:

The Cock Show, Surabaya, Indonesia by Victor Wong

A little difficult to understand what’s going on here - but a wonderful and eye-catching image of a man throwing a cockerel into the air - seemingly to a young boy, perhaps his son.

Composition is great - with the man, the cock and the boy forming a nice triangle - one could debate the inclusion of part of the cage on the left, and whether this would benefit by being a square image, but I think it helps tell the story here.

The simple, and out of focus, background works really well - no distractions from the main subject - as does the colour palette (greens and browns with the hint of red in the cock’s comb - which stands out) against the green foliage.

Very nice.

Kolkata Grand Masters by Paul Reynolds

A well-seen and technically excellent street scene, the sign above the green door telling us, even without the title, exactly where we are. The backdrop to the chess players is effective, with the muted colours of the wall and washing hanging above them. 

I did wonder about the inclusion of the bright green door to the right of them but felt, on reflection, that it balances the opening to the left and provides symmetry to the photograph, keeping the two main figures right in the centre.

What really helps this image is the figure at the end of the passage on the left - in silhouette. All in all a great street - and travel - photograph.

Narrow Streets of Naples, Italy by David Short

This one  really caught my eye as I scrolled down the competition page, thinking, initially, that it had been uploaded upside down - but seeing the street unfold as I scrolled down further. 

A very different viewpoint compared with the usual photograph down a street - I’m intrigued as to how - or with what - it was taken.

A simple view along a street made unusual by the viewpoint and the way the image was taken.