Wildlife Festival Photography Competition Winners Announced!

Sorting through the entries to the Arran Wildlife Festival Photography Competition is an enjoyable task as the images of our wildlife are fantstic and great to see, but the task of judging the competition fell to professional photographer Liz Leyden, and must have been agonising. In the end she chose a delightful picture of a meadow pipit by Brian Hall. Brian is a member of an amateur photography group in his home of County Durham, and is over the moon to have won.

"I came to Arran with 2 friends last year and we enjoyed the wildlife so
much we returned this year, how glad I am! The image was taken with a
borrowed Canon 7D and an Canon 800 lens, we were watching the pipit
from the Distillery car park, it kept landing on the gorse bush
so I took the camera and lay on the ground for 1.5 hrs before I got
this image."

Brian Hall's Meadow Pipit, Lochranza Distillery

This year's winner in the junior category was once again 11 year old Bailey Robinson from Lamlash. Bailey has seen double success in this competition in two years, but still had to work hard for his picture- sitting for hours photographing the wildfowl in Lamlash Bay with his mum.

Bailey Robinson's Mute Swan, Lamlash Bay

Commenting on the standard of entries, Liz said: "It was lovely to see the variety of wildlife that was photographed during the week even when light conditions were less than optimal. Congratulations are due to the winners and all the entrants."

Many thanks to Liz for taking time out from her work as a professional photographer to judge the competition. To view Liz's stunning images of wildlife from around the world visit her website: www.lizworld.com. A special big thanks also go to competition sponsirs A Taste of Arran who have supported this event this year! Visit their website for tasty Arran goodies- available by mail order! www.taste-of-arran.co.uk