The latest weekly competition by Lichfield Camera Club has finished and the winners have been announced.
Members of the club have found a way of keeping themselves active in spite of the lockdown and have formed a photography league which allows them enter their images online.
The brainchild of competition secretary Graham Slight, the leagues aim to keep members’ photographic skills ticking over until normal meetings can be resumed. Each participating member enters one image each week which is judged by fellow members with points being awarded.
With restricted access to the countryside, members are having to use their skills around their homes and gardens to produce new images. It also gives members the opportunity to reassess back catalogues and develop and share images that might otherwise have been denied a wider audience.
The final week of each round always has a theme, and this time – to mark the conclusion of round two – it was ‘the colour blue’.
Scooping first place in League One is Debra Dingley with ‘My Favourite Blue’.
A club spokesperson said: “The lighting of the blue cheese in this image is very reminiscent of the chiaroscuro style of light and dark made famous by artists such as Rembrandt.
“Debra’s skilled placement of all the elements in the image and the wonderful lighting combine to make a very striking photograph.”
Taking second place with ‘Blue Morning on Lake Windermere’ is Richard Moore.
Taken while on a boat trip from Bowness to Ambleside, this atmospheric shot benefits from the early morning mist casting a blue hue over the mountains. The strong diagonal line of the mountain tops and the gradually fading shades of blue contrast very well with the sunlit tree and boats in the foreground.
Anne Anderson takes third place, with ‘A Drop in the Ocean’.
This is another very striking image characteristic of Anne’s creative flair.
Explaining her technique, she said: “The water drop was created using a medicine dropper, three speed lights all set to low power in order to produce a very short duration flash to freeze the action, and a coloured film to get the blue effect.
"The camera was pre-focussed on where the drop would fall and a shutter release used to coordinate the taking of the photo with the drop landing.
"This was a trial and error method requiring many attempts to obtain this image. Clearly her perseverance paid off having produced an image of beautiful simplicity with wonderful detail in the water drop.
In League Two, Sandra Morgan took the top spot with ‘Blue Bottles’
Sandra’s mastery of the Still Life genre is well known and she has created a simple but lovely image of the three bottles. She explained: “The background for this image was inspired by visits to Calke Abbey in past years.
“I liked the old plaster with patches of blue paint, and I have tried to produce the same effect with the plastered board which I made to go with my blue bottles.”
The splash of blue on the textured wall is perfectly placed to complement the shapes of the beautifully lit bottles.
Lorraine Bootham took second place with ‘Approaching Storm’.
Lorraine’s image has a wonderful visual balance with the three parasols on the left forming a powerful triangular geometry with one edge lined up against a sudden change in the sky. The right hand sun lounger nicely fills the space beneath the threatening cloud.
As Lorraine explained: “The Approaching Storm image was taken at Fort Myers Beach Florida. I really like the atmosphere it invokes and how it reflects the speed with which the weather conditions can change - simultaneously showing a beautiful sunny day and the storm that broke just moments after the shot was taken.”
The result is an image of exceptional quality.
In third place is Tim Wayne with ‘Foley Bluebells’.
Tim’s image could have come right off the brush of a French Impressionist.
He has created an image with a lovely dreamy feel about it all achieved with a bit of good fortune as he explained: “It was only a Sunday stroll in an area new to us that led to a few shots of some very scattered bluebells - nothing special at all, and yet... Attempting to get some motion into the image, I found some new settings in post processing which gave me an image that was most unexpected. Time to quit while the going was good I felt.”
David Eaton took first place in League Three, with ‘Blue Bell’
A camera club spokesperson said: “David has captured this image of the bluebell in superb detail with the viewer’s interest held by the different orientation of each flower. The soft lighting helps to bring out the detailed structure of the flower and the contrasting dark background creates an exceptional image of great beauty.”
‘The Pier’ by Annette Keatley took second place.
The spokesperson explained: “Annette has produced another image with a dreamy feel about it conjuring feelings of yesteryear. The diagonal line of the pier and lighter shade of water beneath make this a very strong composition. The image is nicely balanced by the rocks on the left hand side and the muted tones of blue complete this quintessentially English scene.”
In third place is ‘Bluebells’ by Ivan Shaw.
“It was inevitable that the theme ‘The Colour Blue’ would generate lots of images of bluebells and this is another image of very high quality,” the spokesperson told BirminghamLive.
“The central placement of the flower in the portrait orientation works very well and there is again wonderful detail in the flowers. Ivan’s use of three different shades of blue for the background, and border colours adds a pleasingly different touch.”
To view all entries in the Lichfield Camera Club Leagues go to www.lichfieldcameraclub.org
