The Natural History trophies are always hotly contested at Viewfinders of Romsey Camera Club, as the club has always been particularly strong in this type of photography. Donald Bradshaw came along to judge this year’s trophies for prints and digital images, a very worthy judge as he himself devotes much of his time to nature photography around the world.
Donald took some time examining all the images in the print entry before embarking on his judging and he opened the evening by saying that there were some cracking images there. Although there were images from all over the world, Don’s first three places went to local wildlife. He gave the gold award and the trophy to George Marsh for “Red Deer in the New Forest”, an image he described as exceptional because of the lovely light on the deer grouped within a lovely landscape setting. The silver award went to Andrew Greenwood for his family group “Female mallard duck and ducklings”, which Don thought was a lovely picture enhanced by the containment provided by the background. The bronze award went to Stan Stubbs for “Blue Tit”, which Donald liked for its position in the frame and the light in the bird’s eyes.
In the second half of the evening, Donald judged the digital images, which he also praised for their high quality overall. Choosing a winner was a difficult task but he finally gave the gold award and the trophy to Steve Williams for “Vervet Monkey in Kruger”, taken in late morning in September 2009 in the southern part of the Kruger National Park. Steve took the image of this black-faced monkey with a zoom lens with the sun behind him to achieve the lovely light quality and sharpness on the monkey’s hair. Donald described this as a cracking monkey portrait, making the best use of the light to enhance detail in the subject. The silver award went to Stan Stubbs for his “Kingfisher”, with Don particularly liking its position in the frame and the perfect highlight on the bird’s back. John May took 3rd place with his outstanding dragonfly picture “Broad bodied chaser”.
In thanking Donald for his judging, chairman Terry Jamieson felt that he had given members some very well-considered comments, drawing on his wide experience in this field of photography.
Margaret Kirby
Image – “Vervet Monkey in Kruger” by Steve Williams, winner of the Digital Image Natural History Trophy
George Marsh for “Red Deer in the New Forest”
| Home | • | Programme | • | Competitions | • | Gallery | • | Links | • | Venue |
All content
of this site copyright of Viewfinders of Romsey Camera Club |
||||
