Sileby Photographic Society

THE Annual Competition between members of

took place at its Zoom meeting held on Monday, January 10, when it was the turn of guest judge, Gary Beaton from Newark, to decide which of the 60 entries caught his tutored eye and deserved to be on the winning rostrum.

The limitations of a Zoom presentation restricted the entries to those of digital images, but this did not detract from a full evening of stunning photography across a wide range of subjects with a strong emphasis on natural history.

Gary was justifiably impressed with the quality of the images placed before him, confirming the difficulty he had when comparing natural history with architecture, say, or land/seascapes with other subjects. No easy task then for the judge but Gary was able to provide constructive and comprehensive comments for each before deciding which stood out as potential winning ones.

First place was awarded to Giapinero Ferrari for his striking image ‘Lesser Redpole Pair in Winter’, followed closely by Colin Machin and Mandy Sherrington in second and third places respectively with their images ‘Guggenheim, Bilbao’ and ‘A Hard Seat’.

Natural history and wildlife images achieved notable success with many receiving a Highly Commended award. These included Gianpiero’s delightful images ‘Orange Tip on Cowslip’, Nuthatch Perched on Fly Agaric’ and ‘Swallowtail on Foxglove’. Pete Smith’s images ‘Jaguar Stare’, ‘Ocelot in Habitat’, ‘Blue Tit on Puffballs’, and ‘Large Red Damselfly’ were equally stunning, with Mike Belson’s image ‘Dandelion Seed Head’ having great appeal too.

Superb images from Alun Williams, Colin Machin and Richard Storier, with their entries ‘St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral, St. Petersburg’, ‘Baskets’ and ‘Southwold’ respectively completed the Highly Commended awards.