Travel Image of the Month - July 2021 : Classroom, Loikaw : Dennis Anguige

Our judge this month, Justin Cliffe commented, 

Fourteen images this month - fewer than usual but nevertheless some very nice ones in there for us all to enjoy. Hopefully this is the result of everyone is getting out and about a bit more - and we’ll see the results of your travels in the monthly competition over the course of the next few months.

As regards the latest one, after making an initial selection, and then coming back to re-consider them 24 hours later, I have come up with my winner for July - which is:

Classroom, Loikaw : Dennis Anguige

Love this image - which is really made by the little boy, with the doleful expression, in the foreground looking directly at the camera. He is complemented by the two boys in the background, dressed in their maroon-coloured robes, who set the scene well and tell us where we are - Myanmar -  and the boy next to him, looking at something going on behind him.

I have also enjoyed the expressions on the faces, and the differing activities of the other three boys - a most enjoyable image. 


I also have a couple of Highly Commended images as well, these are:

Recess, Bomdila Monastery, India : Saurabh Bhattacharyya

I like this image for a number of reasons - the fact that everyone is dressed in a wonderful, eye-catching, red colour, the action is focused on the batsman nicely positioned in the bottom right third and the fact that there is complete separation (with one very minor exception in the bottom right of the image) between all the individuals taking part in the cricket match. Add to this the person right in the foreground with his arms raised and you have, to my mind’s eye, a very pleasing photograph.

and

The Blue Lagoon, Iceland : Steve Day

No question as to where we are with this image - and it’s a little different to the usual photographs of The Blue Lagoon in that it appears to have been taken in the lagoon with the main subject close to the camera whilst, in the background, we have steam rising from the hot water and others taking the waters. I think that the ‘letter box’ crop works well here, keeping everything quite tight, as does the soft colour palette. Given the photographer has taken this image directly into the sun, they have done well to keep some detail and colour in the subject’s face.


So, three quite different images here, but with the common factor being that they all include people which, personally speaking, I do like to see in ‘travel’ images - the human interest really helping give the ‘sense of place and time’ that makes for a good travel photograph.

• Congratulations to Dennis, his winning shot will be added to the Travel Image of the Month page on the website, with the overall monthly winners competing to be the Group’s best travel photograph of the year.

Click here to see winning images from previous years or here to see 2019 winners, here to 2020 winners, and here for 2021 winners.