The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival photographic competition sponsored by the Benromach Distillery

Local Photographers Take Top Honours For The fourth Year in the Benromach/Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival Photographic Competition

Five Moray Photographers have been honoured with prizes in the Benromach Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival Photographic Competition, which celebrates the landscape, Icons of Speyside and the whisky industry so important to the economy of Moray.  For this year?s competition the organisers selected 3 categories: the Flora and Fauna of Speyside, Speyside Distilleries inside and out and Icons of Speyside.  The competition attracted 177 entries from an International field; the flora and fauna category was new for this competition and attracted some very strong images from Speyside reflecting the broad biodiversity of the area. Judging took place on 11 January 2012 at Gordon and MacPhail Retail Shop in Elgin.  The panel of five judges, under the expert guidance of Allan Gawthorpe, the past President of Scottish Photographic Federation selected the 7 winning images. Allan, who has been judging photographic competitions since 1989, has an international reputation as a competition judge. Fellow judge, Ian Urquhart, retired Managing Director of Gordon & MacPhail reflected, ?The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival is hugely privileged to have a judge of such international standing to head up and guide the judging panel.  Again, the standard of entries was extremely high and we all had extreme difficulty deciding on the winners and the runners up?

The overall winner of the competition was Allan Adam from Linkwood, Elgin with his image Poppy Hare.  Allan said he was very pleased that the 2012 competition had included a category covering Flora and Fauna.  He explained, ?the focus of my photography of the past few years has moved to wildlife photography.  I had heard that brown hares had been seen at Thomshill.  I staked out the poppy field from a building site for 2 weeks before I captured the image?.  In addition to winning the overall prize, Allan swept the Board in the Flora and Fauna Category with his winning image of a Red Squirrel titled ?Sunny Red?.  His image ?Curlew Flight? which was taken on the Dava Moor was selected as the runner up in the Flora and Fauna Category by the panel of 5 judges.  

Julie Munro of Forres was the winner of the Speyside Distilleries category with a beautifully composed night shot of the Benromach Distillery Visitor?s Centre.  Julie said that she took the photograph during an organised visit by the Forres Camera Club to the Distillery.  ?While everyone else was concentrating on taking pictures inside the distillery, I popped outside and captured the image?. 

Winner in the Icons of Speyside category was Jim Robertson from Lossiemouth with an evening shot of the west beach and Lossie Lighthouse titled ?Evening Light?.  Jim said, his photographic session from the rocks nearly ended in disaster:  ?While waiting for the sunset to develop that evening, the tide came in and I had to wade ashore from my vantage point, but the image was ?in the can??. 

Brenda Cooper from Craigellachie was the runner up in the Distilleries category with a thoughtful and well-composed image ?Glenfiddich Guide? taken at the Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown.  Brenda has supported the competition since its inception in 2007 and has had a number of her images included in the exhibition in past years.  Alan Butterfield from Aberlour scooped the runners up prize in the Icons of Speyside category with his image ?Cutting the Barley, Balvenie Castle?.  Alan, a past Chairman of the Moray Camera Club has been a great supporter of the Festival Photographic Competition over the years.
 

The judges also selected 22 images, which comprise the Photographic Exhibition.  The exhibition is used to promote the Whisky Festival and Speyside as a whisky tourism destination. The exhibition will be launched at the Scottish Parliament on 26 January 2012 to coincide with the judging of the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards.  The exhibition will then move to the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh where it will remain on display for the month of February before returning to Speyside.  Elizabeth Oliver, joint organiser of the competition, said: ?we hope to negotiate some prestigious venues for the exhibition later in the year in conjunction with the Competition joint Sponsors the Benromach Distillery?.  She added: ? With so many international entries this year, it was amazing that all the winners and runners up live and work on Speyside and interestingly and for the first time in this competition we have 7 male and 7 female exhibitors, showing an increased interest in photography by ?the ladies of Speyside?.

The prizes for the competition will be presented to the photographers in April at the Benromach Distillery Visitors? Centre in Forres, prior to the start of the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, which this year runs from 3 May to 7 May 2012.