As a result of the current coronavirus crisis, the Isle of Man Photographic Society has had to cancel its formal Wednesday evening meetings until further notice.

This week’s gathering was expected to be a two-way digital image competition with the North West Bristol Camera Club.

Nevertheless, in the absence of a meeting ,judge Steve Babb kindly agreed to score remotely.

The images are to be placed on the club’s website - www.iomps.com - where they may be seen together with the scores.

The ’battle’ with the Bristolians is an annual event of some years standing and one with an unusual format.

The two clubs both provide 30 images with no more than four from any one member.

All images are scored out of a maximum of 20, with both clubs arranging a local showing and judging.

The overall winner is the result of amalgamating the scores from both clubs’ respective members.

It is a matter of record that over the years of the competition, the scores allocated by each judge for any particular image often disagree, sometimes quite significantly, but the overall total allocated is always agreed as the winning club.

This year was no different. The Bristol judge generally scored low - with the English club scoring 309 point to the IoMPS’s score of 396.

Steve Babb, using a more usual club-scoring system, also got the right result giving Bristol 466 points compared to the islanders’ 503.

Although a wide points discrepancy, both judges were in agreement that the images from the IoMPS deserved the win.

The Manx club has a number of very talented members and their images provided the backbone of the winning score.

In particular Jeremy Broome-Smith, Sue Blythe, Steve Johnstone, Barry Murphy and Nigel Owen produced strong photos.

Thanks to Steve for his efforts.

l Given the cancellation of the club’s formal evening meetings, it intends to run a series of articles about photography in general over the coming weeks, together with some helpful hints on how to improve your shots.

Given the enforced ’distancing’ we are likely to face for some weeks to come, maybe this is the opportunity to get into the garden or to walk some of the island’s beautiful countryside and use your cameras to get some images for the family albums.

Chris Blyth