Winning pupils capture Highland Environment in photography competition

Highland pupils from Rosebank Primary and Millburn Academy are winners of The Highland Council’s 2009 ‘Highland Environment’ photograph competition.

Marc Logie from Rosebank won the Primary School category with his photograph of Glascarnoch Dam, Ullapool and Catherine Welsh from Millburn won the Secondary School category with her photograph taken from Dores Beach.

The aim of the competition was to get young people to identify why they love the Highland Environment and to show what they think makes the Highlands special enough to encourage others to save energy and look after our environment.

“With a high rate of entries, judging the competition was quite a difficult task”, explained guest judge Bobby Nelson, Chief photographer with Scottish Provincial Press and Highland Photographer of the year. He added: “It is clear from the entries that we have a wealth of photographic talent among our young people in the Highlands. I was very impressed by the level and quality of all the entries.”

Presenting prizes of a Sony Digital Camera to Marc and Canon Powershot Digital Camera to Catherine, Councillor Ian Ross, Chairman of The Highland Council’s Planning Environment and Development Committee and member of the Climate Change Working Group said: “Congratulations to Marc and Catherine on their excellent photographs which clearly caught the eye of the judges. Although it was a difficult task to choose from all the entries, their choice of subjects depicting the Highland Environment were clear winners.”

A selection of photographs submitted for the competition to be displayed at the Eastgate Centre, Inverness for two weeks from Monday 15 June 2009.

Finalists in the Primary School Category were: Alexander Lewthwaite from Crown Primary; Elizabeth Mills and Emma MacLeod from Portree Primary; Isabelle Law from Broadford Primary; and Josh Mahoney from Dornoch Primary. The Secondary School Category finalists were: Blair Cairns from Plockton High; Carol Salmon from Lochaber High; Paul Mossman and Sam Cairns from Kingussie High; and Katrina Port from Gairloch High.

In order to raise environmental awareness among Highland school children, the Council intends to make this an annual competition.