Thanks for the shoutout.
It's a bit of a shame that the last image in your post wasn't uploaded to the competition. As soon as you bump the contrast just a little bit and show the shadows, then I think your work is quite fantastic. The initial image sadly doesn't quite show the entire dark-to-light range that the piece is capable of, and I figure you might even have snagged the 1st price if this was the case. It is quite stellar work.