Travel Image of the Month - February 2021 : Afternoon Entertainment - Ian Silvester

This month has seen a tremendous amount of interest in our monthly competition with, in the end, 36 photographers submitting shots to the website. 

There are some month's when you can almost 'feel' a theme within the submitted shots, although that wasn't so obvious this month. What we did have submitted was a wide range of subjects and locations to catch any photographer's eye, and there were some that make you realise that photography is as much about being in the right place at the right time, as anything else. It can be a moment and then it's gone. 

So away from our judge Justin Cliffe's selection of winners and highly commended, three shots caught my eye. Lynne Healy's - 'Sri Lankan Tea Picker' is a very powerful portrait of a woman doing an incredibly hard job, the effort etched into her face. Carl Mason's 'In Print' is a record of just one of those moments described above, and having been to Iceland it's possible to feel the intensity of the weather in Tony Beane's - 'Sooooo Cold'. 

However, the selection of this month's winning shot and highly commended was made by our judge Justin Cliffe ARPS, who comments :-

"Another great set of images this month - which I have enjoyed looking at, going away and then coming back and looking at them again. It’s always interesting having my first run through (I don’t have a peek at the images during the month, preferring to wait until they’ve all be submitted) and make a quick, first-impressions, short-list. I then come back 24 hours later and have a proper look at all the images again before, 24 hours later, returning and making my final selection.

"So - after due consideration, I’ve selected, as my February Travel Image of the Month:

Afternoon Entertainment - Ian Silvester
"This image works really well - my eye around the image from the well-positioned girl on the left across to the boat on the bank of the river, up to the steam train nicely positioned on the bridge and then back to the girl again. I did wonder about the red shoes at the corner of the picture, but then felt that this added to the story here. Nice, soft, colour palette - a lovely image  - all in all a very worthy winner this month."

I also have three Highly Commended images, which are:

Walnut Picking, Arslanbob Kyrgyzstan - Jo Kearney
"Having overlooked this one first time round, I came back to it, particularly enjoying the configuration, and positions, of the 4 individuals. They’re all separated (just), the little boy (with his bright red hat drawing the eye to the centre of the image) seemingly showing or handing a walnut to the old lady whilst, in the background, the man walking towards the corner with an armful of sticks. All this tells the story as to what is going on and give some indiction of the life that these people live." 

Old Temple, Macau - Weng Sang Wong
"The rays of sunshine really make this image for me, helped by the vivid red colouring. Nicely symmetrical - with the person in the centre of the frame walking towards the photographer and, for balance, someone walking away on the right of the image. One option might have been to straighten the verticals however the upwardly tilted wide-angle lens and the ensuing distortion adds an element of dynamism here." 

Grand Mosque of Muscat - Sanjoy Sengupta
"An interesting approach by the photographer here, clearly taken with a very wide-angle lens which enabled them to include the top of the arch, thereby nicely framing the Grand Mosque’s minaret, albeit distorting the people at the foot of the image. Very simple, with just three colours - blue, black pale brown and 3 silhouettes, balanced by the two people coming through the arch on the left of the picture."

• Congratulations to Ian, 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.