Our picture editor Leah McLaren takes her pick of the week’s best photographs and tells us why she reckons they make the grade

The topic of the moment is definitely vaping (smoking an e-cigarette), and now it has been announced this week by Oxford English Dictionary that their word of the year is vape. We had to combine all elements of the story into one picture and Jon Lewis didn’t disappoint when he sent in this smokey picture, above, of Daniel Greenall vaping with a dictionary. The side lighting really lifts the image and highlights the vape cloud. We used it on our front page. Great job Jon!

Herald Series:

On Sunday evening we had reports of a boat fire very close to our office at Osney Mill Marina. I grabbed my kit and scrambled out into the dark and rain with reporter Alex Wynick. As we arrived firefighters were breaking a window of the boat and getting their hoses ready. The lack of lighting meant resulted in an atmospheric picture which also went on the front page.

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The sculpture garden in South Parade, Summertown, has given us good picture opportunities on several occasions. This week’s offering of Katherine Shock reacting to the Windy Tree sculpture by Alison Jones is no exception. 
Michael Smith’s choice of an elongated crop accentuates the effect of the stretching branches and gravity defying water drops as they appear to be blown in a sideways direction.

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It’s all in the hands. This is just a nice moment caught by Damian Halliwell as poet Andrew McNeillie recites his work at Woodstock Methodist Church. 
It gives the viewer an audience’s eye view of the performance, with fellow attendees blurred out to the right. A very engaging image.

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Gordon Clayton covered York City v Oxford United for us last Saturday and took this fantastic picture of James Roberts celebrating his opening goal. I like this one because even though he is the focal point, there is lots of reaction also going on around him. This was my favourite back page of the week.

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The story here is about how businesses are affected by the recent traffic congestion. Sometimes a picture is much more than a sum of its parts, this is clearly a picture of an unhappy man in front of his van. However, I like the colours and the composition here. Using a telephoto lens, Ed Nix compressed the perspective making slabs of white and yellow background against which the subject, Shoaib Ahmed, all dressed in blue stands out.

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A creative use of props, directional lighting, intense colour and a good use of symmetry has made a simple idea very effective here. Jon Lewis photographed The Old Fire Station’s Anna Munday tinselled up, with some art in a box for a piece about the OFS “Art Take Away” event at the Christmas Lights Extravaganza.

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