EXCELLENT: Nine-year-old Lucy Plowman shows off her new Galaxy Notebook, which she won in The Leader’s Best of the Fest photo competition. Photo: Geoff O’Neill 070213GOG01 (Lucy's winning photo is on the computer screen behind her.
A NINE-year-old schoolgirl’s cheeky snap of her brother taking a nap under his Akubra hat has taken out The Northern Daily Leader’s Best of the Fest photo competition.
Lucy Plowman from Bendemeer was over the moon when mum Denielle rang her while in class at Calrossy Anglican School yesterday to tell her she’d won.
Judges decided University of Western Sydney photography student Nicholas Smith came a close second, the 21-year-old thrilled to have his image of an indigenous busker on Peel St take out a top spot.
Popping into The Leader office yesterday to pick up her prize of a Galaxy Notebook, Lucy had an ear-to-ear grin as she talked about her winning photograph.
Check out our gallery of the top images here: http//www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/1273361/gallery-best-of-the-fest-from-leader-readers/
Wandering around in Fanzone at the festival while her father, Bugsy Plowman, also a photographer, shot some pictures, she noticed her six-year-old brother Teddy starting to wilt.
Making a beeline for the nearest couch, Teddy’s hat tipped over his eyes and all Lucy had to do was point and shoot.
Lucy doesn’t normally like taking pictures of her brother because he “always gets grumpy and blocks his face”, but she might have to share her prize with him, but only once or twice.
Lucy said her dad had given her toy cameras from the age of five and she liked to watch him work.
Her cattle dog pups – Lollydog, Boof and Blue Patches – were Lucy’s favourite subjects and her favourite part was seeing her pictures on the computer screen.
Judges John Elliott, The Leader’s Barry Smith and country star Aleyce Simmonds had a difficult time deciding on the final two from 100-plus entries.
From bootscooting to a one-year-old who bore a strange resemblance to Chad Morgan, the entries came in thick and fast at festival time.
Barry, who has been a photographer with The Northern Daily Leader for more than 30 years, said black-and-white photography was making a comeback with one-third of entries received in monotone.
“It reminds me of old newspaper photography with the shades and tonal ranges; it’s certainly an art form,” he said.
Barry said Lucy’s winning entry showed her understanding of composition, as it was an excellent human interest study.
“At such an early age, we can expect big things from Lucy. It’s a great shot.”
Meanwhile, judges Aleyce and John said they couldn’t go past Nicholas’s shot, with Aleyce saying you could almost see “every line of wisdom” on the old busker’s face.
“It appears the man is storytelling, passing down stories through song,” Aleyce said.
John said it was a wonderfully emotive shot which captured the spirit of the festival and said Nicholas has done a lovely job of framing the image.
Nicholas said he knew as soon as he saw the man, he would be photographing him, saying he had “everything you could want in a subject”.
“It showed the dedication of the buskers out there. A guy told me he’d been coming back to Tamworth for as long as he could remember, sitting and singing on Peel St.”
Nicholas won a Panasonic Lumix 14.1Mp Super Zoom camera. The top images will be published in The Leader tomorrow and a gallery can be found at www.northerndailyleader.com.au