NORTHALLERTON Camera Club were invited by David Woodthorpe, chairman of the Keswick Photographic Society, to a friendly inter-club competition which took place on the evening of May 26. This was the last meeting of the 2020-21 season for NCC. It was made possible by the use of Zoom, which many clubs have had to make use of for the last 12 months. Each club presented 35 images from almost as many members in an open subject contest. The judge was Ross McKelvey, a highly qualified photographer and international judge based in Belfast.

Ross has been awarded more than 300 medals in national and international exhibitions since 2010 and is the president and founder of Catchlight Camera Club, Belfast.

He reviewed images in random order and spent some time describing what he liked about each one and offered thoughtful, constructive advice on possible improvements. Each image was awarded a mark out of 20 with a spread from 14 to 20. At the end of marking, he went to the trouble of editing four of the lower scoring images to demonstrate how he would have presented them for improved impact.

The overall winner was Keswick PS with 627 points against 603 for Northallerton CC. Eleven images gained the maximum score, seven from Keswick and four from Northallerton. The Northallerton images scoring full marks received a special mention. These were “Robber Fly” (a beautifully sharp image of this rather menacing-looking creature, a carnivorous insect) by Bob Crick as the best nature image, best wildlife image “Now where are you taking me?” (an osprey photographed just after catching a fish, a real-life example of “the defining moment”) by David Beadle, “Dawn Light on Dunes” by Sheila Coates (a wonderful depiction of sand dunes in late evening sunlight) and “Autumn Beauty” by Sandy Furniss (woodland trees in an atmospheric golden sunlight).

A spokesperson for Northallerton CC said members would like to thank David Woodthorpe and all at the Keswick Photographic Society for suggesting this friendly, enjoyable and instructive evening as well as Ross McKelvey for doing such a thorough job of judging the competition.