Summertime... and the livin’ is easy, growled Louis Armstrong in his unforgettable duet with Ella Fitzgerald - capturing, in the tone of his voice, all the languorous, lazy heat of a summer’s afternoon.
Any photographer who could bottle a bit of that and transfer it into a picture would be onto a winner. Well, the best entrants in July's Press Camera Club #summer photography competition came pretty close.
Club members submitted a wonderful diversity of pictures, capturing summer in all its moods - dreamy, reflective, sleepy and heat-soaked. Press photographer Frank Dwyer admits the entries were so good he had trouble choosing a shortlist. The ones that made the final cut are on these pages - but he would have included 20 if he could, he says.
His two runners-up were Karen Gilks' picture of a harvest mouse, and Heather Storr's wonderfully intimate portrait of a young girl blowing grass seed from her hand.
But his winner: Jess Clark's glorious image of old railway tracks running through a riot of wildflowers. It's got everything, Frank said: heat, the drowsy scent of the wildflowers, blazing colour, and an elegant, simple composition. "It's just a great summer photo," he said. And so it is...
The theme for this month's competition, meanwhile, is #water. So get snapping, everyone. It's a real chance to make a splash...
Stephen Lewis
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