The Big Picture reader photo competition 2016: finalists

How do you choose one winner from more than 2000 images submitted by passionate travellers?

Not easily, is the short answer.

But that's what The Age photo editor Leigh Henningham, traveller.com.au editorial producer Kylie McLaughlin, Sydney Morning Herald photographer Nick Moir and Clique Photo Club community manager Louisa Kirby were asked to do recently, spending a day poring over submitted images in the fifth Big Picture competition.

Henningham, a photographer with more than 30 years' experience, says the overall standard of photography gets higher with every competition.

"People are no longer satisfied with just taking landscape photos but are trying to capture the character of a place by using the people and the elements in context of where they are," Henningham says.

"The horse rider in Dubai is a great example of showing the scale, heat and enormity of the desert."

Henningham, a keen traveller himself, says weather can play a big part in travel photography and was a feature of a number of the last-round finalists.

"The rain in Peru made for a fantastic photo as did the soft afternoon light on the lions in Africa."

Take a look at the finalists in the gallery above. The winner will be announced on Saturday, September 3.