upcoming B&W Photo contest advice

[cgleockler]

Thinking about entering a B&W photo competition at school to help raise money for Houston, I can only do one photo so anybody have a favorite out of these 3? Or any advice with editing or cropping would be great, Idk if they'll like my custom cropping so it may have to fit in an 8x10 lol :/

 

[tirediron]

Out of the three, I prefer the middle one by far. I think you need to dial back the contrast a little bit. Not a lot, but it seems rather too strong as-is.

 

[waday]

Agree with @tirediron. I prefer the middle one, as well.

But, if you're cropping to 8x10, I'd have to see the middle one in that crop.

Also, if it's for a school fundraiser (i.e., parents/teachers buying the photo), I can see a few animal lovers liking that last one, but the same comment on reducing sharpness/contrast applies here, as well. The third shot would do well in 8x10 format.