Four Photographers came to Lunch

It was a great delight to welcome all four finalist students, all from the Billericay School, together with teacher Ian Coleman to our lunch on May 23. to celebrate their achievement.  James Ilesley had arranged a great display of their photographs for all the members and guests to see.

The competition asked each  entrant to present a set of three photographs on a common theme of “The World Is Beautiful”, showing different aspects of the subject and exploiting different technical and artistic skills. As we reported last month nearly 100 photographs were submitted and, in the final judging of the best ten competitors, Chloe Woodland was the winner of both the local Billericay contest and our District 1240 competition.  Locally, Jessica Tordeur was runner-up and Emma Roper third. Kara Martin was highly recommended  and also won the Photographic Assignments Best Photograph Award .

District  Youth Chairman, Peter Dowse presented the winning certificates and club president, Ed Harrison handed out the cash prizes (cheques for £50, £25 and £15 respectively for the local competition, and £30 for best photograph. As District winner, Chloe received a voucher for half a day at Photographic Assignment’s studio.

Peter Dowse gave tribute to the quality of the entries, and to the work undertaken by James Ilesley, who he announced, had also agreed to run the national competition in the year ahead.  He also drew attention to the Youth Exchange Programme open to young people in our schools.  “If you want to go abroad on a study trip, anywhere in the world, Rotary can help make it happen” he said.

A final word from teacher Ian Coleman who runs photography at the Billericay School: “Thank you and your colleagues for the brilliant lunch. We had a really good time. And thanks to to all at the Rotary cub for making the students feel very special.  Lastly, thank you for their prizes – they will value them.”