Some fellow bloggers may remember me mentioning a local photography contest to capture the essence of the town where I live. Well, I've had some good news and some bad news...

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First the bad news: The main reason I was motivated to enter the contest was because selected photos were to be exhibited and I was hoping to persuade the organisers that my local poems would look fantastic displayed alongside at the exhibition. Now I had imagined this would be for a few days in a hall or the local library. However, when I found out it was to be a short evening exhibition in the sponsors shop (Specsavers), I decided it probably wasn't worth asking about them wanting poems alongside!

Then the indecision: As I quite enjoy playing with a camera (it's about as artistic as I get visually, as I can't draw or paint, unfortunately) I decided I'd still enter. However, I couldn't choose which pictures (entrants were limited to two) to submit and everyone I asked preferred a different selection. I was about to submit one of my younger son in the park when my elder son pounced on a picture of him at the remains of a town pumping station and insisted I had to use it. Of course, I couldn't say 'no'...

The good news: I won! Yes, shock, horror, I can't quite believe it but the picture won (over 30s section :-( ) and I now have a smashing new camera. So, my thanks to my five-year-old son, obviously, for making the final choice, but also to my sister Beccy and writelinker chausiku (Paola) for their excellent photography tips and cropping advice. (My round in the virtual bar, I think, and definitely a double for Paola!)