The Day Begins

Of course he must have composited it! 135mm at f5.6 - and both foreground and background in focus? And there are rims around the rod where the selection boundaries did not quite match the background. The man in silhouette and the rod lit from 60degrees on each side of the camera - 1/400 sec and with no flash highlights.

But it is an interesting composition nevertheless and with no apparent restrictions on PP in the competition rules I think it was a legitimate entry. A bit of work with a blur tool might have made the PP work less obvious.