Natural History Trophies

The award of the Natural History trophies is always a very popular evening at Viewfinders of Romsey Camera Club, as this type of photography is a particular strength within the club. The subjects all have to be untamed creatures or uncultivated plants recorded in their natural habitat, and Bryan Powell from Camberley, a regular visitor to the club, came along to judge members’ work.

Bryan opened his judging of the print section by saying that he had a very difficult task ahead of him, as there were some lovely pieces of work here. In fact, he had great difficulty separating the top three awards, but in the end, gave the gold award and the trophy to Roy Lambeth for “Nuthatch 2”, an image he described as sheer perfection. The silver award went to Terry Jamieson for his butterfly “Silver Studded Blue on Bog Asphodel”, which Bryan felt was stunning and compositionly very strong. The bronze award went to John May for his monochrome “Frog”, with Bryan admiring its lovely tonal range.

Bryan also praised the high quality of the digital images entered, but finally gave the gold award and the trophy to new member Richard Marriott for “Spotted Hyenas and Jackal”. Bryan thought this was a cracking shot, particularly liking the position of the animals closing in on the kill. He felt that the action in the picture set it apart from a straight animal portrait, which made it different. The silver award went to Roy Lambeth for his stunning and ultra-sharp bird image “Nuthatch 1” and Colin Carey received the bronze award for his high level shot of a “Seagull in Flight”.

In the smaller slide section, the gold award and trophy went to Terry Jamieson for “Red Kite”, with Bryan particularly liking the view of the bird from the underside and the excellent detail. He gave the silver award to Margery May for “Sand Verbena”, as he loved the lighting bringing out the super textural quality of the sand. The bronze award went to George Marsh for the detail in his “Puffin and Sand Eels”.

In thanking Bryan for judging, chairman Jack Whitemore felt that his enjoyment of the images had really come across, and therefore it had been a very enjoyable evening.

Margaret Kirby