BBC Wiltshire Calendar Competition Winners
BBC Wiltshire
www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire
5th October 2007
It's taken a top magazine editor, 3 judges and 77 days for the BBC Wiltshire team to find 12 Calendar Competition winners... and they can finally lift the curtain on the 12 winning entries in the BBC Wiltshire Calendar Competition 2008.

It was back in July that the 450 plus photographs, submitted by amateur photographers from up and down the county, battled it out for a spot on the very short shortlist.

And this year the arduous task of reducing our 450 hopefuls to just 45 potentials fell to Damien Demolder, the editor of the world's oldest consumer weekly photographic magazine Amateur Photographer. Damien, a former professional photographer, has worked on IPC Media photography titles since 1997 before his promotion to the position of editor on the 123 year-old magazine at the beginning of the year.

Judging
Impressed by the standard of the shots, Damien had a tough time selecting a shortlist of just 45 photographs. But after some agonising deliberation the final shortlist of 45 entries was made and it was up to BBC Wiltshire's handpicked panel of judges to make the final selection.

Sifting through the best of the best were: The Wiltshire based wildlife photographer, Tracey Rich, who's been both behind and in front of the lens for a series of video diaries for BBC's Countryfile: the Programme Development Leader at Swindon College, Peter Benson, who heads up the photography courses at the college's School of Art and Design and our very own Managing Editor, Tony Worgan.

So after some intense judging, by the panel, the top 12 shots of Wiltshire taken by the county's amateur snappers has been chosen and for the second year running there's not a photograph of Stonehenge or a white horse in sight.

So here they are.... Have a look at the 12 winning entries in the BBC Wiltshire 'Wiltshire's Wonders' Calendar Competition 2008....click here.

The top entries include a frosty morning at the ancient stone circle at Avebury, taken by Lynette Thomas, to a lunar eclipse over RAF Lyneham, taken by Lyneham Village Online web designer Andy Humm. From the grandiose central aisle of Salisbury Cathedral to a robin's nest in a shed in Trowbridge. From a field full of sunflowers at Corsham, a churchyard full of snow in Lyneham again taken by Andy Humm and a lake full of ducks at Coate Water.

It's Wiltshire seen through the lens of Wiltshirites. Have a browse through some of the 450 entries sent into the BBC 'Wiltshire's Wonders' Calendar Competition and you will see a collection of amazingly high standard photographs. The quality of these images must have made the selection process very difficult.

Andy Humm who has two of the winning entries was astounded to find out that his entries were in the final selection. A keen amateur photographer, who decided to enter the competition as a way to promote Lyneham village and its wonders, i.e. the Hercules aircraft which is synonymous to the Wiltshire Skies. The two images were captured on rare days for Wiltshire, firstly the 'Hercules Lunar Eclipse' image was taken on a rare moment that the mighty 'fat albert' aircraft actually rests in Wiltshire and at a time that the evening skies were so clear with the total lunar eclipse on March 7th.

The second winning entry has been selected for the December page of the calendar, providing a seasonal snow scene of St Michael and All Angel's Church. This image was captured by Andy soon after we experienced the heavy snowfall in February this year, armed with his digital camera, wrapped up warm, he went on a trek through the village to capture the snow blanket scenes. If you would like to see some more of Andy's photographs they are published in the Lyneham Village Image Gallery here

Always taking a focused eye at other quality images, we took the opportunity to view all the other entries for the Wiltshire's Wonders competition and the August winner submitted by Sean Hepburn stood out as a winner.

We contacted Sean after the announcement of his winning entry, firstly to congratulate him on such a superb image and he has kindly provided the following comments about the photograph. Sean recalls, "The image was one of those 'unexpected moments' that you get now and then. I had gone on top of the hill (as I often do) to catch the sunset and was disappointed that it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I had just packed everything away, except the camera and was making my way back to the car when I past these three people on the way to the edge of white horse.

I was about half way back to the car when I looked back over my shoulder to see them sat on the bench, I hesitated for a moment, then decided that I just couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. The camera was set to manual for sunset shots, so I fumbled with the dials to change the settings and took 3 or 4 shots, candid shots always make me nervous.

I looked at the results on the way back to the car and smiled broadly when I saw this shot. I wanted the distance to be blurred and the haze reinforced that feeling, but there's enough detail left to see the green and yellow patchwork of the Wiltshire countryside.

The raised arm of the chap in the middle adds a story telling element to the picture and the title "Reminiscing" was an obvious choice. I have no idea who they were or what they were talking about and if they ever get to see this picture I would love to know." Sean Hepburn has a great collection of his quality images displayed online at www.seanhepburn.co.uk

Lyneham Village Online is encouraging other photographers to capture images of Lyneham, so we can document the history of our community. We ask if you have any photos of the village, people, events that show our village bygones. Even a photo taken last week will soon be part of the village history. Looking back at the image gallery we have, it is surprising to see how the village is changing. If you have any images please do not hesitate to contact the webmaster

The BBC Wiltshire 'Wiltshire's Wonders' 2008 Calendar
All the 12 winning photographs can be seen in the BBC 'Wiltshire's Wonders' Calendar 2008, but due to popular demand these delightful calendars have sold out already. We understand the BBC has decided to only make one print of the calendars. However, we are negotiating to get the two pictures of Lyneham printed, so you can treasure the award winning images of our village. We will post details of how you can obtain copies soon.

BBC Wiltshire 'Wiltshire's Wonders' Calendar Competition 2008
March 2008 Winner - RAF Lyneham's C130 Hercules rests for the night - Andy Humm
Photograph taken 3rd March 2007 during the lunar eclipse at 11.45pm at Lyneham The camera Canon 10D Shutter speed 1/4 sec f11 ASA400
no flash, tripod mount.

December 2008 Winner - St Michael and All Angels Church, Lyneham - Andy Humm
Photograph taken 8th February 2007 location St Michael and All Angels Church Lyneham just after the first heavy snow fall we have received in the village. Camera Canon 10D Shutter speed 1/90th f5.8 ASA200.

Amateur Photographer magazine editor Damien Demolder regularly appears on BBC Radio Wiltshire giving expert advice on a variety of photography related matters including capturing early morning images, flash photography. Damien features on regular shows hosted by Mark Seaman and has provided the following comments on why he decided that Andy's photographs were winners:

"What made these pictures stand out from the hundreds of images that were sent in to BBC Radio Wiltshire is that they…stand out! Pictures get attention when they are different, and both of these are.

I shot pictures of the eclipse too, but like most other people out that night I tried to make the moon as big as I could in the viewfinder. What I ended up with is a kind of abstract planet shape that is coloured red. By taking a much simpler approach, that shows the moon as most people would have actually seen it, Andy has made a picture that tells the story in a much clearer way. The plane is an interesting additional detail, but what we really get is a sense of scale and reality.

The snow scene might seem at first like the average picture postcard that we have seen a hundred times before, but actually those scenes you have seen before have been paintings. Rarely does a photographed scene look this perfect. You have to get up pretty early to see untrodden snow these days, and the technicalities of shooting a scene with so much white are not easy to overcome. Both shots are really very good."