2017 Photo of the Month

OVERALL WINNER & PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2017

(Photo of the Month: December 2017)

Red Squirrel by Paul Stuart

Congratulations to Paul Stuart, December's Photo of the Month winner and selected as the 2017
overall winner for this beautiful red squirrel shot. Paul wins a voucher for one of our photography days.
Paul's photograph was selected from the twelve 2017 photos by one of our favourite professional wildlife photographers, Bob Brind-Surch, who regularly runs photography workshops here at the Centre.
visit Bob's website 'Nature's Photos'

Bob's comments:

"Paul has framed this superbly with the vertical branch travelling bottom left to top right,
whilst conventional composition rules say it ought to be the other diagonal this approach draws
the viewer's attention up along the branch and to the squirrel and especially its face and
amazing ear tufts which are perfectly sharp, as are its whiskers. Try flipping the photo
horizontally and you will see what I mean. The management of the focus, either deliberately
or in post-production, is great, blurring the trunk to the left and making the edge of the photo
form a great boundary to hold the photo together, and the blurring of the tail with a shallow depth
of field again draws your eye to the face and ear tufts - the key parts of the squirrel."

Photo of the Month: November 2017

"Heron with Dragonfly" by Celia Mulhearn