Our deputy picture editor takes his pick of the week’s best photographs and tells us why he reckons they make the grade

Bicester Advertiser: Christmas Light Night in Oxford is a spectacle. Trying to capture it under dim street lighting can be hard. If you use flash, you light whatever is near the camera and everything is black. But Tony Moore did it well

  • Christmas Light Night in Oxford is a spectacle. Trying to capture it under dim street lighting can be hard. If you use flash, you light whatever is near the camera and everything is black. But Tony Moore did it well

Bicester Advertiser: Simple picture: it’s crisp, it’s clean, the long lens shot drops the background out of focus and we can concentrate on the lovely waving Santa Claus as he arrives in style. Taken by Cliff Hide at Yarnton Nurseries

  • Simple picture: it’s crisp, it’s clean, the long lens shot drops the background out of focus and we can concentrate on the lovely waving Santa Claus as he arrives in style. Taken by Cliff Hide at Yarnton Nurseries

Bicester Advertiser: I watched the birdie. I include this picture as I pat myself on the back. I got up extra early on Tuesday morning to try to capture our first really frosty morning. It paid off. The editors seemed to like it as it ran in the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times

  • I watched the birdie. I include this picture as I pat myself on the back. I got up extra early on Tuesday morning to try to capture our first really frosty morning. It paid off. The editors seemed to like it as it ran in the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times

Bicester Advertiser: Is this a huge man or a tiny house? There were no forced perspective tricks required for Dave Fleming as he photographed Brian McDonough and this tiny, thatched cottage. The results were always going to be surreal – and they are and I love them.

  • Is this a huge man or a tiny house? There were no forced perspective tricks required for Dave Fleming as he photographed Brian McDonough and this tiny, thatched cottage. The results were always going to be surreal – and they are and I love them.