College students scooped two of the top awards in the Rotary/Observer Young Photographer of the Year competition.

Out of a total of 83 entries, overall prize and top of the people category went to sixth form boarder, Edgar Dubrovskiy (L6th) for his evocative picture taken on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Edgar, who joined us in September from Latvia, won a Fuji FinePix F440 digital camera. Judges, Rotarians Gil Cox and Denis Fordyce and Observer press photographer Vikki Lince, said it was a strong composition, with good lighting”. Edgar, who was just 14 when he took the photograph, explained, “It was a stormy day and my tripod and the bench were in the water. It was very hard to take photos.” Studying art, economics, history and media, Edgar’s dream is to be connected to cinematography.

Edgar's winning entry

Winner in the landscape section was sixth former, Hugh McGilveray (U6th) who converted his French alpine scene from colour into black and white for better contrast. The judges said that it was reminiscent of famous photographer Ansell Adams’ style with its dark foreground and receding background getting lighter and lighter. Hugh plans to study engineering at university but will continue to carry his camera on his mountaineering expeditions!

Congratulations to you both.