The second evening of the annual competition for the Isle of Man Photographic Society saw the judging of digitally projected images by Jeremy Malley-Smith LRPS DPAGB BPE2*, our visiting judge and one accredited with our federation, the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union.

As with the print competition the previous evening, members - split into the two groups of intermediate and advanced - had submitted more than 210 images in the five classes of open mono, open colour, nature, creative and record for consideration. Jeremy’s specialities include landscape, natural history and macro - so well qualified for the task, and one he tackled with immense enthusiasm, someone who clearly enjoys photography in all its various genres.

First up were the intermediate group with a high quality set of entries, but unlike in the prints, the awards were this time more evenly spread among the group - Richard Shafto winning the open colour with a lovely shot of two kittens (an ’aaahh’ moment!), Claire Schreuder taking both the open mono and the creative sections, the latter with a composite of a face intermingled with coloured smoke swirls as though hair (very imaginative), Steve Johnstone repeating his success in the nature category with a delightfully-composed shot of a stag in the mist, and Janet Henry taking honours in the record with a shot of a Rome bridge flanked by an intriguing statue in the foreground.

In the advanced group, placings and commendations were well spread amongst the group, but the awards were dominated by Jeremy Broome-Smith, winning three of the sections - the open mono with an image of two motorcyclists in close competition on a dirt track, the dust ensuring focus on the riders (and which also won best digital image in competition), the creative with a detailed (almost weird!) composite involving a waterfall, a lighthouse, a twist of land and much else besides, and the record with a quite beautiful Islington church interior.

Nigel Owen took the open colour section with a wonderful close-up of a sunflower centre, pin sharp and with vibrant colours , whilst Sue Blythe completed the group with a win in Nature, this time of a kingfisher emerging from water with a minnow in its beak, again highly detailed and with excellent colours.

The evening finished with our judge, Jeremy Malley-Smith, giving a presentation of a recent photographic safari to Botswana, taking in the Okavanga Delta and the Chobe National Park - and resulting in some stunning shots of the wildlife (elephants, lions, hippos, bee-eaters, rollers, antelope etc) - all much enjoyed by our members.

Yet another excellent evening of photography!

The Isle of Man Photographic Society season of weekly meetings is now coming to a close, but our members will have opportunity during the summer to practise their skills with field trips and social events - details will be found in due course on our website www.iomps.com.

Members of the public interested in attending these events should make contact via our website for further details.