Photographic competition 2008

We were delighted with the entry for this years competition with almost 150 photographs entered, divided into the three categories of digiscoping, action and portrait. The judges, President Gordon Langsbury and Dave Cromack, Editor of Birds Illustrated provided erudite and helpful comment to the enthusiastic audience and the photographers as they judged each of the entries.

The superb winner of the action section and the Gordon Langsbury Cup, Bill Watts picture of a Grey Heron landing, again illustrates that the exotic birds are not the only ones to photograph. Indeed Bill’s picture of a Blue Tit inspecting a cobweb is another example of this clinching second spot in the same category. More exotic perhaps is the exceptional winning portrait of the Black Guillemot by last years winner Mike McKee and bringing us back to our local habitats was David Donn’s winning digiscoped Water Rail.

Our thanks go to London Camera Exchange for providing a contribution to the prizes and for the discount vouchers and optical equipment information provided to members. We also thank our judges and Dave Cromack in particular for providing a choice of new books for section winners and a subscription to Birds Illustrated for the winner of the Gordon Langsbury Cup.

As we look forward to next years competition we need to dust down those lenses and get snapping again so we can look forward to another enthralling evening.

The category winners were as follows:

Portrait

1. Winner : Black Guillemot, Michael McKee
   
2. Runner–up : Greylag Goose, Mike Smith
   

Action

1. Winner : Grey Heron, Bill Watts
   
2. Runner-up : Blue Tit, Bill Watts
   

Digiscoped

1. Winner : Water Rail, David Donn
   
2. Runner–up : Spoonbill, Colin Wilson