Three Stunning Images Take Top Spot In Waterways Photograpy Competition

[Laurence Hogg]

2 October 2013

THREE STUNNING IMAGES TAKE TOP SPOT IN WATERWAYS PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

Three very different but spectacular photos have been selected as the winners of the Canal & River Trust’s photography competition to inspire people to visit and enjoy their local towpath or riverbank.

The free to enter competition ran throughout the summer and was judged by renowned waterway photographer Harry Arnold, and Canal & River Trust chairman, Tony Hales.

The winning entries are:

· Early morning start on the Shropshire Union Canal by Mark Welton

· Sunday afternoon at the Angel Canal by Ros Conti

· Kingfisher emerging with a minnow by Daniel Trim

Each is available to view online, together with a link to all 2,763 entries, at: canalrivertrust.org.uk/photo-winners.

Each winner will receive a state of the art iPhone 5 from Vodafone.

Harry Arnold comments: “The sheer number of pictures submitted, covering virtually every facet of the Trust’s network, demonstrated the enthusiasm of the entrants for the waterways and a keen photographer’s eye for their many individual aspects. As judges, we had a difficult but very pleasant task to reduce this number to three choices which we felt were not only top quality images but illustrated widely differing views of what brings people down to our canals and rivers.”

Tony Hales comments: “The entries were really inspiring and I’d like to thank everyone who took part. It was a difficult decision whittling the entries down to just three winners. The narrowboat emerging from early morning mist on the Shropshire Union Canal is particularly evocative. The busy lock on the Regent’s Canal sums up the wider appeal of our waterways, whilst the stunning photo of the kingfisher emerging from the water with a fish in its mouth truly is one in a million.”

Ends

For further information:

Jonathan Ludford, Canal & River Trust, Tel: 020 320 444 20

Jonathan.ludford@canalrivertrust.org.uk

 

[Starcoaster]

Bloody hell, no surprise that that Kingfisher photo is an award winner.

[Dave_P]

The Kingfisher pic is fabulous! No question.

The Shroppie one is fine but no better than many of the pictures I've seen from forum members.

The Regent's pic is really not very good in my view. The composition and framing is uninspired. The subject matter is fairly everyday. The light does nothing for the subject matter. It feels strangely disconnected and lifeless to me. A very odd choice. I wish I'd submitted something now! If they were looking for something bustling and urban, I could have provided something.

 

For some great Birmingham canal pics, a couple of friends of mine have a website here: http://theobservationists.com/

[keble]

Link: http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/features/photo-competition-winners-announced

[Bill]

Bloody hell, no surprise that that Kingfisher photo is an award winner.

 

Absolutely agree, been trying to get a decent photo of a kingy for years. The woman in the dress on the trad in the 3rd photo looks like an accident waiting to happen, especially in a lock.

[steven wilkinson]

The Kingfisher pic is fabulous! No question.

The Shroppie one is fine but no better than many of the pictures I've seen from forum members.

The Regent's pic is really not very good in my view. The composition and framing is uninspired. The subject matter is fairly everyday. The light does nothing for the subject matter. It feels strangely disconnected and lifeless to me. A very odd choice. I wish I'd submitted something now! If they were looking for something bustling and urban, I could have provided something.

 

For some great Birmingham canal pics, a couple of friends of mine have a website here: http://theobservationists.com/

 

I actually bought a copy of one of those at the weekend from the Gallery

[debbifiggy]

Link: http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/features/photo-competition-winners-announced

 

 

 

 

What I really like is that 2 out of 3 pictures show active boating, one rural and one urban. The kingfisher shot is amazing.

Debbi

[Weyland Yutani]

Totally not understanding what the judges saw in the 3rd one

[WJM]

 

The woman in the dress on the trad in the 3rd photo looks like an accident waiting to happen, especially in a lock.

Exactly what I thought too! And a dangly rope just itching to fall into the prop!

[Ray T]

Totally not understanding what the judges saw in the 3rd one

 

For me, it makes my eyes travel around and into the picture looking for detail. Plus the fact as no one is looking into the camera it is a snapshot of life.

[Flyboy]

The picture of the Kingfisher is stunning. There are some more fantastic pictures by Daniel Trim in his blog.

 

http://500px.com/danieltrim

Edited October 3, 2013 by Flyboy

[Guest]

 

For me, it makes my eyes travel around and into the picture looking for detail. Plus the fact as no one is looking into the camera it is a snapshot of life.

 

I agree it's a nice shot in that it captures the essence of what a busy canal can be about. People on the water enjoying it and people just enjoying it watching what is going on around them no doubt some of them wishing they were on the boats too. Before we had a boat we used to spend many a happy hour or two doing exactly what those folk are doing.

 

[andywatson]

The picture of the Kingfisher is stunning. There are some more fantastic pictures by Daniel Trim on this link.

 

http://500px.com/danieltrim

 

Excellent stuff.

That man has real talent and, I suspect, endless patience.

[Athy]

Excellent stuff.

That man has real talent and, I suspect, endless patience.

Seconded. That would have been the winner had I been the judge. It must have been hard to choose between two such totally different snaps as the Shroppie Mist one and the Kingfisher one.

I can see the merit of no. 3. What is the woman in the dress doing? Waving to the girl on the bank? Pushing off from the lock wall?

[Ray T]

Exactly what I thought too! And a dangly rope just itching to fall into the prop!

 

Plus the droopy stern fender, just not on is it?

[Keeping Up]

Excellent stuff.

That man has real talent and, I suspect, endless patience.

 

I am sure he could not have captured that picture by chance. Almost certainly he had set up a small tank with minnows in it, semi-submerged in the water of a river or pond, and probably used a motion-sensor to trigger the camera.

 

All the same, an absolutely stunning picture.

[Dave_P]

 

I actually bought a copy of one of those at the weekend from the Gallery

Must have been on saturday then. Very sadly, the gallery closed on saturday after 13 years The closing down party was fun though ;-)

 

I agree it's a nice shot in that it captures the essence of what a busy canal can be about. People on the water enjoying it and people just enjoying it watching what is going on around them no doubt some of them wishing they were on the boats too. Before we had a boat we used to spend many a happy hour or two doing exactly what those folk are doing.

 

I can see the point of the picture. It's just not very good. Looks like a typical snapshot. People take that sort of thing every weekend here in Birmingham. The positioning is especially poor. I can see a much better shot being possible from behind the lock. I find it very odd that it was chosen. Maybe Richard Parry's wife took it? (joke!)

[Guest]

I can see the point of the picture. It's just not very good. Looks like a typical snapshot. People take that sort of thing every weekend here in Birmingham. The positioning is especially poor. I can see a much better shot being possible from behind the lock. I find it very odd that it was chosen. Maybe Richard Parry's wife took it? (joke!)

 

I think the fact it looks like a snap shot is what gives it it's appeal and why it was chosen.

 

It's what it says about what is going on, who they are, what they are thinking, were they're going to next, in short it's a picture that tells a number of different stories and whilst the Kingfisher shot is undoubtedly very good it is evident it was taken by somebody with great technical expertise and probably some very flash (no pun intended) and expensive kit. The lock shot may even have been taken on a phone.

 

It's only my opinion but sometimes too much emphasis is placed on technical ability in photography along with owning the latest piece of kit. Some of the best photographers use(d) very basic kit to capture their images - Henri Cartier-Bresson is a prime example, a creator of superb very simple but 'telling' images.

Edited October 3, 2013 by The Dog House

[Mac of Cygnet]

I've looked at most of the rest. There is quite a lot of dross in there, some quite similar to what I've deleted from my camera as not worth keeping. Many have nothing to do with waterways. I'm sure that many people here could have done much better. I'm afraid I didn't know anything about the competition - too busy boating!

 

I agree with Allan that the kingfisher pic must have been set up (which doesn't detract from its brilliance).

 

Edited to say that Cartier Bresson used a Leica, one of the best cameras available at the time. His genius was to confine himself to a single lens and one format.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Mac of Cygnet

[Guest]

 

I am sure he could not have captured that picture by chance. Almost certainly he had set up a small tank with minnows in it, semi-submerged in the water of a river or pond, and probably used a motion-sensor to trigger the camera.

 

All the same, an absolutely stunning picture.

 

...............and I would guess rapid multiple 'quick fires' of the shutter taking a rapid series of images allowing him to select the best one.

[Neil2]

Not really playing the devil's advocate here, it's just that if you read the premise of the competition "to inspire people to visit and enjoy their local towpath or riverbank" and look at the pictures in that context, the Kingfisher photo probably has the least merit.

 

How many members have ever got a good look at a Kingfisher on the canals? Yes, it's a great technical photograph and would be a worthy winner of a wildlife photo competition, but I wouldn't even have shortlisted it for this prize- you can't even tell if it was taken on a canal or river.

 

A more appropriate wildlife picture would have been a Heron, or a pair of Swans with Cygnets.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Neil2

[Guest]

Edited to say that Cartier Bresson used a Leica, one of the best cameras available at the time. His genius was to confine himself to a single lens and one format.

 

Cheers - yes I knew he used a Leica, but the basic point still stands. It wasn't a modern Leica with loads of bells and whistles to do all the work for you it was very simple compared to what even a cheap modern camera can do and he still managed to capture great images.

 

All had to be set manually, now all you need to do is 'set to auto, point and shoot' and you can have a stunning image in a second. Plus if you mess it up you can even edit it on your PC afterwards.

[cheshire~rose]

 

All had to be set manually, now all you need to do is 'set to auto, point and shoot' and you can have a stunning image in a second. Plus if you mess it up you can even edit it on your PC afterwards.

 

Yes you can get some excellent images by using auto but a camera has to assume many things when it chooses what settings to employ for that photo taken on auto. There will always be something that is a compromise when taking a photo on auto. I had no idea just how much compromise until I started using my current camera, the first SLR or any kind I have ever used. I am astounded at how many people have cameras with a lot of capability but never take it out of auto mode.

I am learning something new with each location, each type of light but it is so rewarding when a photo works when it is me who has chosen the settings instead of relying on what the camera thinks I am looking at on auto.

I only cleared out some of the "failures" from last weekend last night or I would have had a perfect example to show you. I took a photo of the floating market framed through a bridge hole. It was fairly early in the morning and still a bit of haze in the air. The boats were mostly in shadow. I took the photo and looked at it on the screen. It did not reflect the view I was seeing. The colours were washed out. Then I remembered I could alter the light meter in the camera to take it's reading from the centre of the shot. I retook the photo and the comparison was incredible.

 

Of course wildlife is a different thing altogether. I see lots of kingfishers when we are out and about on the boat. I am certain that people who do not see them have just not got "their eye in" for spotting them. On one hand if I had my camera on auto I suspect it would not cope with the speed these critters fly at or the variations in light you get on most canals as you switch between being under trees or out in the open. On the other hand it is easy to lose sight of the fact that to get any photo of a kingfisher is quite an achievement for the novice and so if it is taken on auto and recognisable then you did well!

 

2 weeks ago I took 22 photo's of kingfishers. There were 3 separate sightings. I got one slightly grainy image which I felt was worth sharing with friends because the turquoise colour was so strong (this was taken in a dark cutting on The Shroppie from a moving boat) All the rest were fairly hopeless. The crispect photo was of the kingfisher perched high in a tree in direct sun. He was very cleverly using a leaf as a sunshade meaning the photo was useless! Until I lean how to use photoshop there is minimal adjustment to any of my photos (just what I can do with basic windows to straghten a horizon or possible alter the exposure a little)

 

I think it is all too easy to say that the Kingfisher one was taken with a lot of expensive kit and patience. It is a stunning photo. I also think that this is exactly what makes people want to visit waterways. They see them on Countryfile and people who live in Birmingham, Manchester or London can't always just nip out to the Western Highlands of Scotland to see wildlife in the flesh. They can nip down to their local canal though. Yes herons are great but so easy to spot. People need to learn to open their eyes, be quiet and have patience to spot the things that might be just a few feet away from them if they had not noticed

[dor]

Whilst the merits of pic 3 are open to discussion, at least it does not appear to have been extensively photoshopped. What annoys me about photography mags is that many of the professional photos are shopped to within a pixel of their life. They may have some artistic merit, but they are no longer photographs.

 

Agree the kingfisher has considerable technical merit, but it isn't really about our waterways is It?

Edited October 3, 2013 by dor

[Jim Batty]

 

I am sure he could not have captured that picture by chance. Almost certainly he had set up a small tank with minnows in it, semi-submerged in the water of a river or pond, and probably used a motion-sensor to trigger the camera.

 

All the same, an absolutely stunning picture.

 

Back in August we spent three days tied up on an obscure bank on the Thames below Rushey lock. I spent one of the days sitting in a folding chair reading on the bank by a small pool hidden from the Thames by some tall rushes. I was distracted by a kerploosh just in front of me ... and a kingfisher emerged from the water with a small silver fish in its beak.

 

A couple of minutes later the kingfisher was up in the willow just in front of me, eying up the pool. At the right moment it zoomed down into the pool (disappearing beneath the surface) and then popped up again with another fish. The kingfisher did this five or six times in a row - always diving from the same branch - and each time coming up with a fish.

 

What was marvellous was that it came back to fish in exactly the same way from the same position throughout the day. I watched it catch about 40 fish in this way!

 

------

 

I did grab my camera and anticipated what the kingfisher was up to. And on 'motordrive' managed to get a streak of him diving, emerging from the water with a fish with lots of splashes, flying off, etc. But I don't have the necessary telephoto lens to really get in close to this sort of action (and throw the background out of focus). The competition photo could 'easily' have been taken in nature by someone who knew what they were doing. ... and had lots of patience.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Jim Batty