Club member Pip Rabbitts donned her judge’s hat and gave us her expert opinions on our entries for the annual competition that is dedicated to a letter of the alphabet.

This year we concentrated on “The Letter S” and there were plenty of contenders in both sections with squirrels and snowdrops, sunrises and snow all in abundance.

Pip explained the way that she goes about judging competitions by first looking for eye catching shapes and forms, and then for any emotions that the photographer has tried to communicate.

Last night she particularly commented on the use of focussing and depth of field according to context, together with colour and effective compositions.

Both Jenny Short and Graham Nicholls were commended in the COLOUR section respectively for “Satsuma” and “St Alphege Church, Bath”, and Graham was highly commended for his well captured “Squirrel” together with Tony Nineham for his macro shot of “Snowdrop”, and Diana Walker for her “Snowing on the Arctic Fox”.

Jill Toman was HC for “Snowdon Sunrise” and also took 3rd place with “Sally Lightfoot Crab”, and Diana again made 2nd place with “Squirrel in Autumn”. The overall winner was David Bathard’s portrait “Sitting Sadhu”.

In the MONO section Jane Richardson’s “Spider’s Web” was commended, as were Pamela Bruce-Lockhart’s graphic “Silhouette” and Suzanne Ladd’s “Scruffy Scamp”.

Diana Walker was highly commended for “Stars Over the Campsite” and Jill Toman for both “Springer Spaniel” and “Soldiers at Sandhurst”.

The good tonal range of David Bathard’s “Letting Off Steam” was rewarded with 3rd place, and his “Selfie” took 2nd. The winner of this section was Jill Toman with “Sand Dunes”.

Pip has agreed to return and judge “Letter T” next year and we now look forward to our Annual Awards Dinner on March 6 and the rather less enticing AGM the following week.

Jenny Short.