For the second meeting in a row the Enniskillen Photographic Society Chairman, Terry McCartney, began the evenings get together by congratulating one of the members on their success in a Northern Ireland Photographic Association Competition. A picture by Mavis Dean, entitled "Wilf at the Tipplers" secured the Top Colour Print award in the NIPA Annual Beginners Competition. More than 160 colour entries were received from all over the province.

This week's club night was the Sports Competition. Andrew Paton,www.photovisionphotography.com, was the judge and guest speaker. Andrew combines his career as an Award-winning International Photojournalist with his career as a Wedding and Special Events photographer. Originally from Belfast, he now lives with his young family in Enniskillen. His images are published regularly in National and International Newspapers and Magazines including The Observer and The Sunday Times. His photographs can also be found in "Mick McCarthy's World Cup Diary 2002" and "Keane: The Autobiography".

As usual there was a varied range of images from rugby, gaelic and soccer to swimming, canoeing, darts and some still life quirky interpretations. The Novice Colour section was well represented with both ladies and gents featuring in the top 3. Catherine Comer showed she can turn her hand at any subject matter with a fabulous picture of a local gaelic football match.

Linda Phair showed her prowess with a kite surfing picture, but first was Darragh Collins' canoeing picture. Andrew Paton felt that the picture showed confidence with photography - an image, sharp in the right places but showing good use of a slower shutter speed. Stephen Hetherington's rugby pictures placed him first and third in the Novice Mono category. Again the judge loved confidence the photographer showed in the picture. Paul Elliott was second with his macro darts shot.

The judge was very impressed with the quality of all the pictures on display, but felt it extremely difficult to choose a top 3 in the Advanced sections. Eventually Andrew, who has photographed at some of the biggest sporting event in the world, picked Derek Preston's 'Vancouver Sun Run' as his top Colour Print. The sharpness of details along with the movement in the runners' legs meant that it came out on top. April Rooney's time in the Gym paid off with a second placed Boxing Shot. The judge found the boxing ring a difficult environment to photograph, but April had pulled it off magnificently. Third place went to Terry McCartney angled shot of a Car in mid air at this years Rally Ireland event. Terry also placed top in the Advanced Mono section with a low down shot on a rugby field. Andrew loved the tight crop and angle of the print. Second was a magic golfer silhouette by Valerie Nemeth and third a gritty boxer shot by Adrian Kelly.

There was only a small number of Slides - James Armstrong got 2nd and 3rd with two still life shots of a tennis racquet and golf tees. Terry McCartney came 1st with an impressive wakeboard air shot with Enniskillen Castle in the back ground.

Andrew was impressed with the overall material that he had judged and said that his picture editor would be happy to use many of the entries as feature prints for newspapers. The evening finished with a showing of work by Andrew and some questions and answers.

Thursday 7th February sees the return of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain slide exhibition featuring the best slides of 2007. Come along at 8pm in the Ardhowen Theatre or visit www.enniskillenphotosociety.com to see

all the winning Sports photographs and read more details.