In the Herald - Tough choosing pic of the bunch

This week saw the first photography competition of the new season at Irvine Camera Club.  With another great turnout at Irvine Comminity Sports Club, we welcomed along Stuart Strachan to assess our images from our first Open Competition.  

Stuart, a member of Kilmaurs Photographic Club, is a well accomplished photographer with years of experience.  As a photography judge Stuart always comes across as friendly, encouraging, and knowledgeable.  These are important characteristics, especially when giving advice to beginning photographers.

With the club’s much increased membership this season we had many photographs to get through.   Stuart offered his advice and feedback in his usual positive and complimentary style, providing interesting and helpful comments on all the images as he went through them.

Coming top on the night was Tracy Ross with her emotive monochrome image of a lone tree entitled 'Survivor' which Stuart praised for its precise composition and excellent toning.  In joint second place we had the evocative 'Dinorwic Quarry' by David Bell and the captivating 'The Pigeon's Friend' by Colin Houston.  There was a three-way tie for third place with Stuart unable to split Janet Paterson’s lovely image 'The Harvest', Andrew Winter’s stunning 'Round and Round' and Fiona Wallace’s beautiful 'The Flycatcher Catches the Fly'.

Several other images were singled out by Stuart for commendation, and I have included his highly commended choices in this week’s selection for the paper.

A huge well done to everyone who entered.  It takes courage to put our work up for public assessment but ultimately the encouragement and guidance received from an excellent judge like Stuart can only help to make us better photographers.

If you would like to join our thriving camera club then you can find all of our details at our website www.irvinecc.co.uk.  We would love to see you and your photographs at the club.