Butty Boat Photo Wins Prestigious Competition

[cheshire~rose]

Forgive me if this has already been posted somewhere but a couple of searches didn't throw up anything. 

Wednesday saw the award ceremony for The National Historic Ships Photography Competition at Trinity House in London in the presence of Princess Anne. 

When you consider that there are over 12,000 vessels on the register and they come in all shapes and sizes from tall ships to delight gentleman's launches (and eveything in between) it was lovely to see some representation of our historic canal boats among those photos shortlisted but the beautiful photo by Teresa Fuller of Butty Boat Ilford was the overall winner

You can see all the winning photos here: 

http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/2017_winners.php

From the press release on the NHS website:

"The competition was strong this year with outstanding entries from a wide range of entrants. The judging panel were delighted to see both professional and amateur photographers represented, although to ensure fairness these details are not disclosed when selecting the best photographs. Commenting on Teresa’s winning image, judge Paul Atterbury said: “Having had a long-term attachment to Britain's inland waterway network, I am delighted to see a canal boat as the Overall Winner. National Historic Ships UK seems to conjure up sea-going and coastal vessels, so it is good to remember that canal craft are also part of our great boating story. As someone long familiar with canals and canal boating, I can say with authority that this photograph really does it - glorious light and landscape, early morning autumn mist and a great sense of adventure, while at the same time reminding us of a vital but often overlooked part of our boating history. For decades, so much of our ordinary trading life depended upon pairs of narrow boats making their way slowly through the landscape. This scene, exceptional and romantic today, would have been commonplace eighty years ago."

 

Here is a photo of a completely gobsmacked Teresa collecting her prize from Princess Anne with Paul Atterbury watching the proceedings:

 

Very well done and well deserved for such a lovely photo. 

 

Well done to Friends of President for winning the Marsh award for Volunteering too. 

 

 

[David Schweizer]

    A truly evocotive photo. It reminds me of some of Alan Firth's atmospheric paintings.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2017 by David Schweizer

[haggis]

6 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

    A truly evocotive photo. It reminds me of some of Alan Firth's atmospheric paintings.

 

 

I thought that too. Many years ago, Alan sent me several photos of his paintings and gave me permission to have place mats made with them. They are very atmopspheric and I love using them. This superb photo reminded me of them 

haggis

[Taslim]

There should be an award to the person who took the shot of the presentation too.   Classic shot. A real story.

[cheshire~rose]

Just now, Taslim said:

There should be an award to the person who took the shot of the presentation too.   Classic shot. A real story.

Yes, I agree. I was fortunate enough to be there for the proceedings and everyone present was saying how impressed they were with all aspects of it. Trinity House is an amazing building crammed full of really maritime heritage, we all wanted to spend a little longer having a nose around.

Princess Anne gave a speech wthat was very relevant and interesting without refering to notes. She even raised a laugh when suggesting that historic boat owners would be happier if Health and Safety had never been invented

Each award that Princess Anne presented she ensured the recipient was engaged in a brief conversation about their entry and the boat, there was never any feeling of having to move on with proceedings and all of us watching were just thrilled to see people having their few moments with Princess Anne.

There were a lot of important people there that we all had the opportunity to mix with both before and after the award presentation. Teresa was centre of attention after the awards so I looked around to see who I could chat to and a lovely friendly lady (unusually without a name badge) asked me how I came to be there that day. I explained that I had a photo that had been shortlisted and returned the question to her. She was Princess Anne's lady in waiting and, as Princess Anne was right behind me at that point she was glad to be able to chat to me so she could stay in close proximity, The Princess being known to escape from her sight very easily if she so much as blinked! We were then joined by Leslie Morgan OBE (the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Tower Hamlets) and Hendrik Boland, the recently retired President of European Maritime Heritage. Needless to say, as anyone who knows me will agree, all three of them went away with a teeny bit of knowledge about my favourite old boat!

[haggis]

I think Princess Anne has a big interest in boats and boating and having seen her at a few events on the Lowland canals I have been impressed with how chatty and relaxed she has been. The first time I saw her "up close" was on the Crinan canal when she was standing on the bows of her boat coiling the rope ready for the next lock. We were locking in the opposite direction on Gamebird and we crossed in the pound.

haggis

[Cloudinspector]

My wife was shortlisted last year in the same competition with this photo of Ilford. She didn’t win but was flattered to have been shortlisted given the number of entries submitted. The award ceremony was held on HQS Wellington.