Our recent meeting of the camera club have featured an exciting competition, judged by Pete Fry from Barnstaple.

Pete is an experienced judge and well-qualified photographer and he provided a helpful critique of each image. He stressed the importance of reading the rules to ensure entries complied with the theme and its parameters. For Creative he was looking for some signs of 'altered reality' and some 'added value' in the Open section. Whilst many of the images were technically good, well presented and met the competition requirements, what was needed to raise them above the rest was a powerful first impression that grabbed the viewer. Proof of the validity of these points was evident as last night's images were displayed and a murmur went around the room when some-thing special or unusual was seen. But you have to start somewhere and as Peter often said about many images 'they were on their way'.

Results
Creative print images (22 images)
1st Peter Elliston for 'Red river' - a portrait of a girl with flowing red hair emerging as if from a river.
2nd Rachel Carter for 'Surfing Gentoo' a very believable Gentoo penguin on a surfboard
3rd Nick Farnham for 'Born in the USA' - an eagle's head with the USA flag superimposed
Highly Commended went to Debbie Ludgate for 'Get a head, get a hat' - four wonderful silhouettes, Frank Colebrooke for 'Pheasant shoot' - a collage of magnificent pheasant feathers and Paul Carter for 'Surfing the web' - a surfer skimming over a spider's web.

Open print images (22 entries)
1st Jon Peters for 'Night Runner' - a striking mono image full of movement of a lone runner - completely blurred but totally obvious.
2nd Paul Carter for 'Kings of the surf' - a group of very active penguins at the water's edge
3rd Rachel Carter for 'Fun on the beach' - a lovable dog enjoys its freedom in the sea
Highly commended went to Paul Carter for 'Mountain hare in winter coat'.