The Isle of Man Photographic Society this week competed for the Isle of Man Bank Cup - a stand-alone competition always with a Manx theme, this year with the nominated assignment of Manx wild flora and fauna.

Unusually, it is the only competition in our year where members compete on equal terms in one class, with entries required in both print and digital formats but, as there is only one cup, our judge has to state a preference for the best image on the night in whichever of the two formats.

Fortunately, our judge was eminently qualified.

Neil Morris is managing director of Manx Birdlife, a life-long ecologist and conservationist, a keen photographer so well aware of the techniques and skills required for natural history images, and an excellent and articulate speaker whose well-balanced comments were much enjoyed in an entertaining evening.

Our members produced some 40-plus images covering a wide selection of subject - birds, a wallaby, moths and butterflies, marine life including a beautiful octopus, lobster and anemones found at depth close to the Calf, wild flowers including orchids and tree blossom and even a frog.

However, it was a superbly printed image of porcelain fungi by Ruth Nicholls which took the judge’s eye and favoured in the prints - a line of the mushrooms on a log in Ballaglass Glen, perfectly caught and their form well shown.

The digitally projected images provided intense competition with several images scoring highly - a lovely close-up of a goldcrest (Britain’s smallest bird) from Jeremy Broome-Smith. the sea anemone from Richard Shafto, three squabbling gulls by Ruth Nicholls being note-worthy, but it was an extreme macro (close-up) image of a dandelion seedhead by Steve Johnstone which took the honours in digital, and also awarded the overall winner on the night. As Neil said, the technical skill required for this image was of a very high standard.

Chris Blyth, club president, gave the vote of thanks.

The society meets at the Art Society Building (Thie Ellyn) in Withington Road, Douglas, with all meetings starting at 7:30pm. Our next meetings will be on Thursday (prints) and Friday (digitally projected images), 11th and 12th April for the showing of the Members Annual Competition, kindly sponsored by the Arts Council . Meetings are open to the public, with a modest entry fee 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.