Potters Bar and District Photographic Society has announced its winning pictures for 2022.
After a year of close competitions, the following winners were announced.
One competition is cumulative over the year, with five rounds for each of printed and projected images.
- General Class winner – prints: Richard Litherland.
- Advanced Class winner – prints: Fiona Adamson.
- General Class winner – projected images: Mark Heineman.
- Advanced Class winner – projected images: Fiona Adamson.
Additionally there is a separate competition for 'Picture of the Year' for each category selected from those that scored 19 or 20 (out of 20) throughout the year.
- General Class winner – prints: Richard Litherland.
- Advanced Class winner – prints: Graham Coldrick.
- General Class winner – projected images: Mark Heineman.
- Advanced Class winner – projected images: Peter Regan.
Trophies will be awarded at the Society’s Annual General Meeting next year.
Society president Fiona Adamson said: “The judge for the Print of the Year had a particularly difficult time, holding back 27 out of the 56 prints for a second look and awarded 11 commended and 10 highly commended honours as well as first, second and third places.
“Once again, it has been a year of closely fought competitions, interesting speakers and enjoyable social events. I am stepping down as President in 2023 but have enjoyed seeing The Society through the last two years.”
A Society spokesman added: “A new series of competitions will start in January together with a full programme of speakers, visits and other activities. Anyone wishing to start a new photographic hobby in the New Year is welcome to join.
“Further details can be found at pottersbarphotosoc.org.uk or on Facebook. A potential member may visit for up to three meetings to see if it is for them.”
Here's a selection of 2022’s winning images, together with descriptions from the photographers who took them.
RAINY DAY IN THE CITY by Lesley Alsford
“This was taken on a Society outing to London this summer. Our aim was to photograph during the ‘blue hour’ however the day turned out to be very rainy with little colour in the sky.
“There was a special theme of ‘alleyways’ coming up as a society competition so we concentrated on photographing in the maze of little alleys in The City. I’ve used a long exposure time for this shot with just a little camera movement, which has emphasised the rain.”
AT ONE by David Loebell
“This shot was taken in mid October 2021 at Loch Ard, The Trossachs in Scotland. I was fortunate to be able to spend five days in Scotland in autumn looking for sun kissed valleys, golden bracken and statue-like pine trees. I was met with dreich Scottish weather for the first few days but I knew that should the weather gods look kindly upon me I had some wonderful scenes to capture.
“On the final morning mist was finally forecast and I was at the far end of Loch Ard 30 minutes before sunrise. Driving back towards town for a well-earned breakfast I turned a corner and came across this scene with the lone canoeist out for a 10am paddle just as the last of the mist was burning off in the morning sun.
cLuckily I was able to stop the car and had maybe 1 a minute to capture the scene. I liked the feel of black and white and feel lucky to have captured the scene.”
ROCKS AT SUNRISE by David Lobell
“This shot was taken mid way through July 2021 at Stonehenge. I was photographing the Milky Way core as it rose above the stones at 1am from the north side of the stones. It was so late in the night as it is necessary to wait for the Moon to set in order to capture the night sky well.
“By the time I had returned to my campervan it was 02:00 and I knew that sunrise was only 2.5 hours away. I grabbed some sleep and set my alarm for 30 minutes before sunrise.
“The view in the photo is what greeted me as the sun rose. I waited for the correct balance of colour, mist and light to capture the stones in silhouette against the mist with a graduated sky.
“I was amazed how many of my fellow campervan dwellers also rose early to witness the scene. If you look closely to the right of the stones you can see two figures, they who were part of an early morning VIP visit. I felt like a VIP that morning.”
BISON ON THE RIDGE by Fiona Adamson
“This photograph was taken in The Hayden Valley Yellowstone National Park in January 2020. Out of shot just along the Ridge was the rest of the herd searching for grass.
“This particular bison was lagging behind and provided the isolated shot. The sky was grey and overcast and the snow was hugging the valley curves for me providing a lovely landscape vista.”
ELEPHANT SHREW by Peter Regan
“In September 2019, my wife and I visited five different safari parks in South Africa, one of them being Tuli. On the last day in this park we were taken high up in the rocky hills to observe the scenery and as the light started to fall we sat on the rocks to have a little snack.
“The guide had a cool box with ice cubes, taking a few of these out of the box he laid them on the rocks where they started to melt. To our surprise these small animals emerged, at first glance they looked like mice, they approached the ice which was now a liquid and started to drink.
“The creature is one of the fastest small mammals, having been recorded to reach speeds of 28.8 kilometres per hour (17.9 mph). Elephant shrews are small, quadrupedal, insectivorous mammals resembling rodents or opossums, with scaly tails, long snouts, and legs quite long for their size, which are used to move from one place to another like rabbits. They vary in size from about 10 to 30 centimetres.”
IMAGINE by Richard Litherland
“The Beatles statues are at the Pier Head in Liverpool. This image was taken using a phone camera, nothing special a Moto G(50), on an October morning with the mist rolling in from the Mersey.
“I crouched down to get the tower of the Liver Building, which was clearer as it rose above the mist, behind John Lennon. The sculptor has caught his visionary look, as if he is seeing things we can’t, hence the title, which is of course one of his most famous and much-loved songs.”
LOOKING WEIRD by Mark Heineman
“I took this photograph in July 2021 at the Tate Modern. Pandemic restrictions were easing and we were able to visit public places but masks had to be worn.
“What attracted me to take this image was the juxtaposition between the man in the mask looking quizzically at the painting and the painting 'looking back' at him.
“The title of the photograph, could equally apply to both subjects. When I took it I never imagined it would be a winner, but I thought it told a story and was engaging and humorous.”
THE BAY by Graham Coldrick
“The Bay is the result of the pandemic lockdown, my inability to travel, and time on my hands. It was my interpretation of somewhere I would like to be but which is conceived from no particular place. Pictures of the sky, the boat and the birds were firstly combined in Photoshop to form a montage and then recoloured to give a dawn effect.
“I returned to the images number of times to make small alterations until eventually I realised it was finished.”
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