Our penultimate Club competition of the season took place on Wednesday 17th February and was judged by Ken Ainscow of Lytham St Annes Photographic Society. Ken is a long standing friend of our Club and has judged for us many times over the years, with members all appreciating his skill and critique. Sadly for us this was to be his last judging as he is retiring from the circuit at the end of this season, however we do hope that he will visit us in other capacities in the future.
There were some cracking images and Ken stated more than once that he was impressed by the standard of the pictures on show. We began with the Club open colour section and our congratulations go to winner Kim Rigg with Fishy Encounter, while new member Cathy Cash was runner up with Pouring Pomegranates. Both Kim and Cathy are very new to photography, so it’s a joy to see their images doing so well.


Next to be judged was the Advanced open colour section, with several photographs scoring top marks. 19 points were awarded to Dylan Reynolds with Familiar Taste of Poison, Jeff Bagnall with Red Hot Chilli Pepper and Simon Raven with Fresh Apple. Once again Maureen Smith and Jo Knight battled it out for the top spot, with Maureen’s An Apple A Day and Jo’s two images Gravity and Repast all being awarded 20 points. Well done to Jo who’s light painted Gravity (not a composite she is at pains to add!) was announced as overall winner.






As there were so many images to get through we forewent our usual half time break, though I snuck off to raid the biscuit tin as all the pictures of delicious food had given me the raving munchies 😆.
The next section to be judged was Club monochrome where 19 points were awarded to Phil Drayton for Dissolving Skittles, while Kim Rigg’s Line Caught Mackeral was announced overall winner. Kim’s skills have come on in leaps and bounds this season and I’m sure all our members are delighted to see her hard work and dedication rewarded 🙂.


An administrative glitch meant that Ken hadn’t seen or pre-scored the Advanced mono images, so he was very much put on the spot to judge blind which is a big ask. However he did an admirable job and commented on the strength of all the images shown. 19 points were awarded to Dave Nelson for Eggs, Maureen Smith for Love a Coffee and Jo Knight for Coffee with Milk. The top spot was fought over by Dylan Reynolds with The Core Explosion, Gavin Lowe with What’s Cooking and Jeff Bagnall with Egg. Our congratulations to Dylan whose image The Core Explosion was announced as overall winner.






Next week is critique night, with club members sending in images they need help with which will be viewed by 3 of our more experienced photographers who will offer advice on how the image could potentially be improved. The aim is to help members who are struggling with particular pictures, but we also hope the evening will act as a learning experience for all club members.