The annual photographic competitions are the high spot of the year’s work.

Because of the importance of these competitions, a highly qualified judge from the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union (L&CPU), to which the society is affiliated, is invited to scrutinise the entries.

As was reported in the Courier recently, making a welcome return visit to the island and to the society, this year’s judge was Christine Widdall MPAGB, EFIAP, FBPE, a former president of the L&CPU.

On day two of our annual competition Christine judged the digital projected images. Being keen on personal development, she began by suggesting various ways in which the skills of club members generally might be improved.

She then proceeded to give her personal opinion on the images she considered worthy of an award or special mention.

Her natural enthusiasm and easy sense of humour shone through as she explained why these images had given her particular pleasure. She delighted her audience by saying how pleased she had been with the very high standard overall.

Her preferred approach was not to look specifically for weaknesses, but to concentrate on the positive aspects.

She had been pleasantly surprised by the level of skill in handling the available light sources and her assessments on each image reflected their emotional appeal to her and the story the photographer was trying to convey. She had not found it easy to rank the entries because of the high standard but her choices were delivered with such clear authority that her conclusions were understood and accepted.

In the standard group, Patricia Larkin cleaned up with first, second and third in the colour section, her ’Wells Cathedral’ taking the top honours.

She then took first place in the natural history section with ’Kingfisher’ and her ’Christmas Altar’ came first in the record section. Michael Howland’s ’Super Moon’ was awarded first place in the monochrome section.

In the intermediate Group, Barry Murphy’s image of ’A Grand Day Out’ was placed first in the monochrome section, whilst his ’Puffin’ topped the natural history section.

He won the colour section with ’In Safe Hands’, which was also judged to be the best overall digital image across all sections.

Beryl Quayle’s ’Golden Eyes’ won the creative section and her ’University Building, Liverpool’ was judged the best record shot.

In the Advanced Group, there was little to choose between many of the entries, such was the consistent standard.

However, ’Smokey Old Town’ by Chris Nicholls was selected as the best colour entry and his ’Indoors People’ as the best monochrome image. Sue Blythe maintained her successful year by winning the natural history section with ’Polar Bear Jumping’ and Ruth Nicholls came first in the record section with ’Holocaust Memorial Venice Ghetto’. Jeremy Broome-Smith completed the list by winning the creative section with ’Splash’.

The second half of the evening allowed Christine to impress us with a range of images featuring her own work, some of which had done well in national and international competitions.

Tony Curtis gave the vote of thanks for two entertaining days and presented Christine with a suitable memento of her visit.

Antony Hamilton