All though the Nature Competition is a stand alone for the trophy, it is also part of the league.
As the Judge went through the prints I was quick to realise that only one of my prints had so far been shown, and then it was top three and I knew the third place was not mine, as I could tell from the way it was mounted, so that meant I had a 1st and 2nd place in the prints but which was 1st place and low and behold the one I hoped would do well didn't let me down, it was my Backlit Crested Tit, my Puffin in Flight with nesting material came 2nd.
Next came the images, and all three scored 17/20 so I was happy with that, they were consistent, by now tensions were high, Who were the over all top 3 and who was going to win the nature trophy, there are always more entries in images than prints and the 1st place image was a Red Squirrel, and by then I was surely saying good by trophy, in 3rd place was the Red Squirrel.............. in 2nd Place my Puffin with nesting material .........................in 1st place for the Nature Trophy was my Backlit Crested Tit. I could not believe I had once more won the nature trophy.
I would never have thought of doing a backlit shot, it is all thanks to a good friend Andy Howard, My brother and I had went to Inverness for the 2020 vision talk by Peter Cairns (well worth going to listen to if you get the chance) Andy happened to have the following day off and asked if we would like to join him for the day taking photos mainly Crested Tits.............while out Andy suggested various shots to try for the backlit was one of them, over the few years I have know Andy I have always learned something each time, and I have Andy to thank for me using my camera on Manual and in RAW, check out Andy's website! you will find it in my links page, I cant thanks Andy enough for all his help with my photography.