Congratulations to Ray Hill for being awarded ‘Print of the Year’ by judge Darrell Oakden DPAGB EFIAP BPE5*, for his captivating print of a ‘Common Female Kestrel’. Darrell thought it was a classic nature image which ticked all of his boxes. He enjoyed the elegant pose of the bird, and the well balanced composition. The diffused, environmental background added context to the picture. Darrell added that it was pin sharp, and you could see the texture of the kestrel’s wings. A worthy winner. Well done Ray.
Darrell told us that the nature section was our strongest, and held back 12 of the 15 entries. He ended up awarding a 1st,2nd, 3rd, 5 Highly Commended and 4 Commended prints. Ray’s wife, Kath, secured 2nd place with her well caught ‘Irritated’ which shows a bee eye balling an eagle. Darrell said it was good to see something a bit different which demanded a second look. Ray also took 3rd. place with a detailed portrait of an ‘American Bald Eagle Grooming. Again, Darrell liked the exceptional sharpness, and the texted revealed by the side lighting. He also liked the bird’s attitude.
The five highly commended prints were Wallace Baxter’s ‘Squirrel Eating Nut’ and ‘Redshank Feeding’, Kath Hill’s ‘Common Terns with Catch’ and ‘Red Squirrel on tree stump’ and Ray Hill’s ‘Hamerkop repairing nest’. The four commended prints were Keith Mulliner’s ‘Red Squirrel on Log’ and ‘Black Jaguar Watching’, and Peter Robinson’s ‘Joyful Macaque Family’ and ‘Weaver Bird on Twig’.
In the Colour General section, 11 of the 13 entries were held back. Keith Mulliner’s studio portrait of a professional model, ‘Book Reader’ took 1st. place. Darrell liked the props and lighting which gave gentle shadows. He added that lady’s pose which added to the atmosphere. Ray took 2nd spot with his equestrian photo of ‘675 Oliver Townend on Butts Lelia’. Darrell liked Oliver’s expression and the lack of any distractions. Wallace Baxter’s well-timed cricket print of a batsman being clean bowled, ‘When everything goes wrong’ came 3rd. It was caught at the decisive moment, with the bails in mid-flight and the batsman wearing a pained expression.
The three highly commended prints were Wallace Baxter’s ‘Victorian Photographer’, Peter Robinson’s ‘Amputee Football Action’ and Keith Mulliner’s ‘Aaron Silvester on bike no 34’. The three commended prints were Peter Robinson’s ‘Jessica’s Try’ and Kath Hill’s ‘He’s Mine’ and ‘Radcliffe Hill’.
Peter Robinson’s ‘Steam Engineer’ won the monochrome section. Darrell told us it was a natural environmental portrait where the engineer looked proud of his working machine. Another of Keith Mulliner’s studio portraits took 2nd spot. His ‘The lady’ was well liked by Darrell who said he liked the elegant pose and setting. It was well composed, and the lighting brought out the detail. In third place was Wallace Baxter’s fine rugby study of a ‘Line Out’, It showed a playing in flight catching the ball against the sky. Darrell thought the square crop worked well and told us it was sharp and had good detail.
The three highly commended prints were Wallace Baxter’s ‘Eye on the Ball’, Peter Robinson’s ‘Cher Tribute Act’ and Ray Hill’s ‘Pre 1984 Russian 4×4’. The two commended prints were Keith Mulliner’s ‘Eye Contact’ and Peter Robinson’s ‘Oasish Guitarist’.
All the prints that came 1st.2nd, 3rd and were highly commended can be seen above. All the results can be seen in our Results page.