An abundance of top quality images being judged by Andrew Barton LBIPP LMPA, well known local professional and a great friend to the Isle of Man Photographic Society provided the activity at this week’s meeting.

Members had submitted nearly 100 entries for our third open competition, where the images can be of any subject.

A gargantuan task, and unusually, Andrew had chosen to make his decisions ’on the fly’ - judging on the night without previous knowledge of the entries.

It proved very successful, his comments helpful and given with great aplomb, whilst his selections were well accepted.

Print images were judged first, with Jeremy Broome-Smith vying with Barry Murphy for the top position but taking the honours in the advanced colour section - his Atlantic Coast being a lovely pastel composition.

The monochrome section was particularly difficult with high marks for images from Sue Blythe, Sue Leeming, Jeremy Broome-Smith and Barry Murphy, but the latter taking the judge’s eye with a well printed image of Worthing Pier.

In the Intermediate group, a lovely profile shot of a red panda earned Claire Schreuder the win in the colour section, with Geoff Atkinson and Jonathan Carey in close pursuit

A silhouette shot of the Ben-My-Chree against the Tower of Refuge. and a lone walker on the beach in the foreground gave Jonathan the edge in the monochrome.

In a closely contested advanced colour digital section, Jeremy was again the one to beat, with two of his images receiving top marks, the image Passages 100 Years On of barnacle encrusted ruins in shallow water against a sunset sky being the judge’s favourite, both of this section and of the evening.

Di McCudden produced a beautifully composed image of the groynes at Glen Mooar to gain the award in the advanced monochrome section, again in a close contest with four other members.

The intermediate colour digital saw Beryl Quayle and Claire Schreuder both get top marks, with Claire’s image being the judge’s preference - a lovely portrait of Angelika, the lighting very well handled.

Pat Larkham, Jiri Podobsky and Jonathan Carey were all in close pursuit.

Claire repeated her success in the monochrome, this time with a close-up portrait of a chess competitor in deep concentration of her next move.

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, February 27, will be a presentation by Graham Harvey entitled African Magic.

Meetings are open to the public, with a modest charge for non-members, and all will be given a very warm welcome. Full details of our programme can be found on our website at www.iomps.com.