Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Plaudits pour in for Sophie’s snap
A Bargeddie schoolgirl has been honoured for her picture-perfect skills with a top prize in a national photography competition.
Sophie Heron won the primary school category of the My Place contest run by the Scottish Civic Trust for her black-and-white picture, Waterfall.
Her atmospheric entry, which shows a girl under an umbrella, impressed judges including photographer and Trust chair Colin McLean, Keep Scotland Beautiful representative Katie Murray and Historic Environment Scotland chief executive Alex Paterson.
The St Kevin’s Primary pupil chose her subject to fit in with the competition’s 2020 theme of water, in celebration of the current Scotland-wide year of coasts and waters.
Now 11-year-old Sophie’s photo is featuring in an online exhibition at myplacescotland. org.uk, along with all the other entries from across the country – and a planned public reception and exhibition is currently intended to take place in Glasgow in September.
The competition is a Scotland- wide built environment photography competition for school-aged people.
My Place aims to encourage young people aged four to 18 to explore the buildings, architecture and archaeology in their home areas, and to experiment with photography skills.
Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop congratulated the entrants “for the exceptional standard of photography and the many inventive ways in which they have captured their local built environments”.
She added: “The awards are a terrific way to stimulate interest in and to nurture a concern for our surroundings from an early age, and it’s great that we can still enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of our young people by way of the online gallery.”
Meanwhile, fellow photographers across Monklands have until May 31 to submit entries to the inaugural
“pride of place” competition being run by insurance provider Ripe Photography, which has a top prize of £350 for the winner.
Submitted pictures must include an identifying feature of the place being captured which “sums up its spirit”, such as a noteworthy building, street sign or any other distinguishable point of interest. And the contest asks entrants to capture their “emotional connection with a place”.
Organisers hailed the competition, which launched two weeks before the coronavirus lockdown, adding: “There have therefore been some fantastic examples of photographers getting even more creative than usual and submitting beautiful indoor shots and ones snapped outdoors during their daily exercise allowance.”
See www. instagram. com/ ripe_ photography_/ for details and to enter.