Firstly, congrats to all the winners! I must say that this challenge certainly took a level of effort above the previous challenge as capturing human emotion is tough when you have a model. What made this challenge toughest is verification.
There are some amazing candids and newspaper-reporter style photos that really bring emotion to film, but getting verification, IMO, is a tough task unless you know the subject and therein lies the real challenge: either working with someone you know to get a studio/portrait type shot or having to be brave enough to get total strangers to verify.
I was too lazy personally to do either and thus I must truly commend those who took the time and effort to enter. My hat's off to you! I also must say that the first place photo is stunning. I saw it early on in the challenge channel and knew it was special! The desaturated tones and perfect focus/DoF work so well with that expression that it made me envision being in that forest. Bravo!