March 16th was our annual competition, this time judged via Zoom by Dougie Allan. There were four categories, Art & Abstract, Flora & Fauna, Structure and Landscape, with a wide range of imagery in each. You can see the winning images - and the recording - from our Members Only page here.
In the abstract category, Sally H showed her ICM skill with "Light on Loch Buie", a colourful and unusual sunset. Melanie gave us light painting in the A1 underpass in "Looking into the Void" and Lorraine had an ethereal grey / blue flock of birds- or were they dancing waves?- in "Take Flight".
In Flora and Fauna, Elaine gave us "Greylag", an unusual over the shoulder portrait of a goose so real you felt you could ruffle the feathers. "You looking at me?" featured Richard W's favourite fox in the recent snow and Grace H gave "Bird on a stick" a whole new twist with her "Buzzard" in silhouette on a power pole.
In Landscape, Michael Thomson's "Watching the Dawn" featured a silhouetted couple framed by the National Monument on Calton Hill. Byres Hill and the Hopetoun monument under a menacing and snowy sky was the subject of Sally A's "Winter Sunset" and Sally H gave us a monochrome view of Moy Castle and Ben Buie on Mull.
"Structure" is always an interesting category and we had three very different images on top. "Rock Contours", from Andy B showed one of those fractal landscapes (I think in a bedded ash) that your eye can go around forever. Sally A's "Moonshot" was a well caught moon apparently shot from an incinerator chimney, while Andy C's "Allium" was a superbly detailed seedhead. Clearly a man who knows his onions.
Overall winners were:-
- Michael Thomson on 10.
- Second equal, Sally H and Elaine each with 9.
- Sally A with 8.
Our thanks go to Dougie Allan for his work in judging our entries . We hope we didn't break your computer, Dougie. It doesn't matter how often we practice, something invariably throws a wobbler on the night. That's the wonder of Windows.
Next year, with luck, we will all be in the hall for the annual competition and tea and biscuits may be had.