As current holders of the title, the Isle of Man Photographic Society was this week delighted to host the annual three way digital battle with the island’s two other camera clubs, the Southern and the Western Societies.

The event was held at the South Douglas Old Friends Association and it proved a very popular venue, the room allowing an excellent view of all the images for our large audience.

Our judge for the night was Ian Aldcroft ARPS, president of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (the federation to which all three clubs belong) who was invited in particular as it has been some years since the last visit by a member of the L&CPU executive. Ian has had a distinguished career in the photographic world, his monochrome portraits in particular being classic images of high quality and beautifully lit. and which gained him the ARPS qualification. In justifying his scores (all being out of a maximum of 20), his commentary was affable, softly spoken and knowledgeable.

All three clubs have a membership of excellent photographers so a very competitive evening was assured, with 30 images from each club being judged. The key to such a competition however is strength in depth - of having a mix of entries across the board which all gain a good to high score. And so it proved on the night. The IOMPS entry included three images gaining maximum 20’s (from Sue Leeming, and two images from Jeremy Broome-Smith). These were matched by three images from the Southern also gaining maximum scores, one of which (from Andrea Thrussell - a lovely sunset seascape with kayaks returning to shore) won the judge’s favour as the individual image best meeting his own preferences - he confessed during the evening to enjoying sunsets, cats and portraiture.

However, the IOM Photographic Society had established an early overall lead, never gave it up, and ended the evening with a winning score of 533 points to the Southern’s 508, and with the Western on 493.

Our thanks to Barry Murphy and Construction Design for their financial support for the event, while Antony Hamilton gave the vote of thanks.

Chris Blythe

The Society meets at the Art Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Withington Road, Douglas, with all meetings starting at 7:30pm. Our next meeting on Wednesday, 28th November will be a presentation by members of the IOM Astronomical Society on "Night Skies Photography". Meetings are open to the public, and all will be given a very warm welcome. Full details of our programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com

’Heading Home’ by Andrea Thrussell (SPS) gained best image at the annual three way digital battle between the IOMPS and the Southern and Western Societies