Club Meeting, Browell Trophy Competition - Tuesday 13th December 2022.

       
                  1st. Arctic Tern.                         2nd. Juvenile Kestrel.        3rd. Prince of the Meadows.

On Tuesday 13th December 2022, Morpeth Camera Club held their Annual Natural History Competition where
members were able to enter up to three digital images to compete for the Browell Trophy, a silver salver that
was presented to the the club in 1985 in memory of a former member Jack Browell, who had a great interest
and knowledge of the subject.

For this contest, George Ledger ARPS DPAGB from Consett & District Photographic Society was invited to view
and comment on all entries before selecting his award winners. A respected NCPF judge, George has a passion
for photography with a quest for exploration and learning about the natural world that has led to him gaining
many awards and a portfolio of published images.

A large variety of different natural history subjects had been captured and George stated that it was always
interesting to see how other photographers had approached this genre of photography. Across the forty four
images we saw examples of plants including Dandelion, Thistle, Rosebay willowherb and Orchid. Butterflies,
damselflies and hoverflies were captured in close up together with caterpillar, crickets and fungi. Birds in
flight were well represented by Gannets, Geese, Gulls and Terns, whilst Curlew, Pigeon, Greenfinch, Grey
Heron, Greenshank and Swans had been recorded in their natural habitat. Several images were not local to
our area and a beautifully coloured Narrow Billed Tody, a Sloth and young in a forest canopy and elephants
on the plains, all added to diversity of the entries.

Throughout the evening George offered advice on shutter speed, composition, backgrounds, light and depth
of field. Angle of viewpoint is very important and filling the frame has always been a given for natural history
photography but George stated that in recent years there has been a clear shift towards showing more of the
environment and lifestyle of the subject.

Following a well informed and interesting critique of all the entries, the judge announced that he had highly
commended four images with awards going to Canada Goose by Paul Appleby and Mating Kestrels also by
Paul Appleby, Wood Pigeon by Karin Jackson and Gull with Lunchtime Snack by Glyn Trueman.

Moving on to his top five selections, Greenshank by Glyn Trueman was placed 5th, Spotted Orchid by Sue
Dawson was 4th, Prince of the Meadows by Carl Harper took 3rd place. Juvenile Kestrel by Davy Bolam was
runner up in 2nd Place. First place and winner of the Browell Trophy for Natural History went to Arctic Tern
by Paul Appleby.

George stated that there had been a lot of images in the running for a top five place and that members
should not be disappointed as the standard had been so high that fine margins had come into his decision
making. Co-Chair Roseanne Robinson then thanked George for his time and effort in making it an enjoyable
evening before refreshments were served.

Davy Bolam.