Chiswick Photographers Scoop Awards

Praise for local snappers John Clare and Jon Perry in two top competitions

Two Chiswick-based photographers are celebrating awards this week, John Clare for a photograph of a tea seller in Delhi, and Jon Perry for an image of a fox on Chiswick High Road.

John Clare is celebrating two awards – both from the Royal Photographic Society. Last week he learned that one of his images has been chosen for the RPS Travel Print exhibition, to be held at the Society’s HQ in Bath.

His winning travel entry is a photograph of a chai (tea) seller in a cramped market stall in Old Delhi. He said, ‘I was out in the market in the early morning, looking for images that summed up the bustle, chaos and cramped nature. Suddenly I saw this teenage boy, in a stall so cramped he had to sit, selling chai. I only took two shots, and this one worked well. I think I caught what Cartier-Bresson called ‘The decisive moment’. I love the nonchalant expression as he casually gives change to a customer.’ It will be on display in October.

John’s been the owner of a Chiswick-based communications consultancy, LionsDen Communications, for 25 years, and been a photographer for more than 30 years and his work is available at www.john-clare-photos.com He is married to BBC TV News presenter Maxine Mawhinney.

Jon Perry, ( above) who has posted many images over the years on chiswickw4.com and is well known as co-collaborator with Ian Wylie of the annual Chiswick Calendar, has had one of his submissions 'High Commended' by the British Wildlife Photography Awards. It is entitled, 'Two Worlds' and it shows a fox eating food left out on the street (see image above)

John has been a photographer for many years but has only entered three or four competitions. This year he decided to submit some images to the British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) for the first time. He only had a few days to get things ready before the deadline as he was due to go on holidays but managed to enter ten photographs spread across several categories.

He tells the story behind the shot. "I went with a friend for a walk down to Strand-on-the-Green to do some night river shots. I limited myself to one fixed lens, 50mm, as an exercise to make myself think harder and not rely on a zoom lens. This is something I haven’t done for years! The shots on the river were not really too exciting, but on the walk home we spotted the fox on the south side of the high road near Sandersons Lane.

"Looking from the west the fox was in darkness, but we slowly cautiously walked to the other side, I then very slowly got closer and closer, getting lower and lower, to try and get in on his level and see the world from his perspective, as well as not frighten him. A young lady came and photographed him on her mobile, you can see her in my picture. He ran away at that point, but did not go too far and then returned, so I was able to get some more shots."

"Having entered the shots and gone on holiday it seemed like a long wait until announcements of successful entries were notified. Then I got an email on 14 July with the good news. Although I only had one successful photo, I was very happy as I know this is the cream of the cream of British Wildlife Photographers. At that point the information about winning an award was confidential, so I could not start publicising it.

"Finally the night of the opening of the show, 5 September, arrived. It was a thrill to be there, a truly amazing exhibition, one marvels at both nature itself and at the ingenuity and imagination of the photographers. Every photo is of the highest quality and the creativity and variety of shots are wonderful.

The show will now tour the country over the next year having finished its exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

It would be interesting if the young lady recognises herself in the picture. Perhaps she could write to ChiswickW4.com!

Here is another shot, entitled 'Oi' which was taken at the bridge in Chiswick House by Jon Perry

For those with a specific photographic interest, the winning shot details are:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D mkIII, Lens: Canon 50mm f1.4, Exposure 1 /80th sec f1.4 (ISO12,800).
Location: Chiswick High Road near Sandersons Lane, (opposite Boots Chemist).

September 10, 2016