A Hove photographer has been named runner-up in an international competition for a series of stunning pictures of fungi.
Julia Claxton, a regular contributor to Brighton and Hove News, has been awarded second place in portfolio category of the International Gardener of the Year – and a Royal Photographic Society Silver Medal to boot.
And she’s now hoping to pass on the techniques she used to create the image in some workshops later this year. The full set of images can be seen on Julia’s website.
She told the News: “I was ecstatic when I found out. I’d almost forgotten about it as I submitted my entry way back last year.
“Although I’d been asked to provide full size files at the beginning of this year, as I hadn’t heard anything since, and entrants day at Kew was getting closer, I decided I must have missed out.
“Then I got an email on the afternoon of Sunday 25th April saying I’d won. It was such wonderful news, coming as it did after a horrendous week (when I’d missed the completion date on the flat I was buying because of a problem with the bank). I went from stressed to feeling blessed in the blink of an eye!
“I can’t quite remember now how I heard about the competition, but I have a feeling a friend suggested it to me.
The images are a little unusual in that the initial image capture is achieved digitally by placing the fungi on a scanner and scanning them, so the scanner acts as a camera.
She added: “I’m hoping to run workshops later in the year for anyone wishing to learn a bit more about this.”
