On January 13th, the society had our second round of the cumulative print competition for our Tier 1 and 2 photographers.

In Tier 1, there was a good standard among the 11 images judged by Penelope Reeves, with two scoring 10. It was a hard choice for the judge to pick a favourite from the 2 top scorers, Shirley Steadman’s ‘Hanging Around’ and Anthony Cooves’s ‘Osea Beach Huts’. After a bit of thought, the overall favourite was Shirley’s image for the simplicity of the shot and the skilled use of colour.

In Tier 2, there was again a great collection of very different images amongst the 29 entries, with ten scoring between 9 and 10. Four entries scored a maximum 10: Charles Phillips and Craig Harriss with landscapes, Gavin Bickerton-Jones with a street shot, and the ever-consistent Jez Wood with a lovely shot of a Hare.

Again, it was a difficult decision to pick a favourite from the 4, but once again, Jez Wood came out on top. The judge liked the moody background and low shooting angle of the image, which set it apart from other Hare shots she had seen. Jez got the shot in a local field near his house just outside Wymondham.

Last month, we had the final round of the open projected image competition, judged by Scott Hurd via Zoom from South Africa! Scott was impressed by the high standard of both Tiers, and in Tier 1 awarded a 9 to eight images, with Stephen Bould's image ‘Light Box Cubes’ picked as his favourite. He remarked it was the sort of image that got you thinking, with light refracting in all directions as the vivid colours come through.

In Tier 2, he had an even harder task, with eight images scoring 9.5, and only one scoring 10, and once again it was Jez Wood with his 'Puffin in sea campion’ picture, a shot he got last year on Skomer island off Wales.