Speyside Photography Group named Grampian Eye champions for 2022
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A LOCAL photography group which started just four years ago has been named champions of a prestigious North East competition.
Speyside Photography Group (SPG) claimed the top honours in this year's Grampian Eye competition held in Alford on Saturday, April 24.
That included group member Paul Scott winning the Grampian Eye Trophy, awarded to the photographer with the best image, and the Grampian Cup, awarded to the group with the highest aggregate score.
The competition saw 11 groups from around the North East enter 12 images each - some of which have been running for more than four decades.
For group founder and experienced photographer Lenny Smith, the group's success against such a strong field is one of his proudest moments.
"I've personally won about 30 international photography awards over the years," Lenny said.
"Nothing tops this because it is such a huge achievement because we are a relatively new group and we didn't know if we would even have a group still at this point.
"We had only been going for one year before the pandemic shut everything down so to win the Grampian Eye considering all of that is a fantastic achievement."
Lenny, who teaches at Moray College, started the group to give his students a chance to continue their photography after they had completed his course.
The group, which meets every Tuesday at Elgin Library, quickly grew in popularity, amassing more than 60 members in the process.
That number has fallen to around 40 recently as a result of the pandemic but Lenny is hoping for a boost in membership when the group returns for the new season in August.
"I'm expecting 50 or 60 when we return for the new season," Lenny said.
"We're hoping winning this award will help give us that boost.
"Some of the images we won with were scoring 18s and 19s out of 20 and those were coming from people who were beginners not so long ago.
"They've come on so much and I'm so proud of them and what they've achieved."
