Thank you to everyone who participated in the November Photo Challenge! It was such a delight to see so many creative approaches to this month’s theme. There were kids playing, grownups working, musicians rocking—even the stars got into the act. We have many more fun challenges lined up for the new year, so I hope you’ll keep your cameras at the ready. (And don’t forget our December Challenge is going on right now!)

Here are the judges’ top picks for the November Challenge:

The bright, graceful arc of falling water contrasts beautifully with the night scene in this photo by Steven Digirolamo.

The radial blur in this image by Anton Prestele does a great job of emphasizing the woman’s upward movement.

We love the interplay of color, motion, and texture in Frank Binder’s fluid image. The breaking waves manage to keep the photo from becoming entirely abstract.

The heady joy of being a dog! This nicely executed panning shot by Ron Abbott offers a lovely combination of blurred background, flowing fur, and just the right touch of sharpness in the dog’s features.

We felt a little dizzy after looking at Dorothy Ford’s creative take on the theme. The off-center yellow balloon adds just the right pop of color to the moody surroundings.

The ghosted bicyclist in Stephanie Bunch’s photo adds a nice sense of urgency to an otherwise static scene.

There’s an impressive amount of energy pent up in this beautifully lit and well timed photo by Pamela Headridge.

You can almost feel the adrenalin in Christell Faul’s wonderful action shot, which beautifully mixes sharp details and motion blur.

Winner: We love that this photo by Jim Chisholm evokes two forms of movement: The movement of our eye down the spiral ramp; and the motion blur of the people moving through the scene. The one motionless couple at the center adds a wonderful contrast to all of the surrounding movement and helps anchor our gaze.

Kudos to all of our winners—and to everyone who took the challenge!