FPS Photograph Of The Year By Kevin North
Sue Dee, organiser of the FPS Photographic Competition, writes:
The 72 photographs from 30 entrants were judged by Chris Castle, an award winning photographer with over 30 years experience.
Chris is an Associate of the Disabled Photographer’s Society and has won a number of awards including a Silver Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) for an exhibition of floral close-up work.
She has been placed twice in the RHS Annual Photographic Competition. Her work has featured in many magazines as well as on greeting cards and wedding stationary. Several of her Fleet Pond photographs were recently used on the BBC South weather slot.
Chris commented on the high standard of the entries to this year’s competition and on how much she had enjoyed judging: ‘Judging any competition is very subjective so this is very much my opinion only, and only on the day that I judged them.’
As well as photographic skills, Chris was looking for the ‘Moment to Remember’. In other words, a photo that stands out as unusual, it could be the light, the weather, the quirkiness of particular circumstances. In other words, something that is different cannot be repeated tomorrow and therefore ‘memorable’.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who entered. The winning photo is shown above and those that were highly commended follow, along with Chris’ comments.
The overall winner is a terrific photograph by Kevin North (above) that stood out from the crowd. The squirrel stopped on the way up the tree and looked straight at the camera and this moment was caught beautifully. Very good composition and focus with good colour and depth.
Highly commended photos were:
Dave Driscoll‘s photo in the snow, not a common sight in the south of England, is sharp and well composed and has a magical quality that snow gives to any scene.
Aaron Gee has managed to capture the elusive kingfisher in an unusual pose. There is good composition and depth of colour.
It was so nice for the heron to pose by the fishing sign and Mark Hodson has captured the moment perfectly. A sharp and well executed photo and great fun.
Daryl Scriven has the deer looking at the camera – not easy to capture, especially this well. He has made the most of a great opportunity.
Liza Toth has a fantastic light with the mist – light like this can change any minute. A well composed and a lovely and peaceful picture.