Striking image of the night stars wins North Yorkshire competition to capture lockdown in a picture

Tai Newman’s picture entitled Light in the Dark won the Ripon Grammar School community-wide lockdown photography competition, judged by an award-winning documentary photographer.

The 16-year-old, from Ripon, who discovered his passion for photography three years ago when his father bought him a Canon 4000D, said he stayed up until 2am to capture his photograph.

Having set up his camera on a tripod with a ten second timer, he ran to the top of the hill to appear in the photo.

His photo was taken in a field opposite his home, where he stood on a hill to expose the whole horizon.

Tai, who is passionate about the stars and planets and took astronomy at Ripon Grammar School for GCSE, said: “I really like this picture because even through hard times we can find the light in the dark to guide the way.

“I used a canon 90D with a stock lens. It’s the know-how of working out shutter speeds and adjusting according to the lens which was the tricky bit.”

He added: " I’ve watched a tonne of YouTube videos to learn about cameras inside and out."

National Geographic and Time magazine photographer Mark Read said Tai’s photograph was conceptually very strong and also showed great technical ability.

"I like how he put a lot of thought into the process, stayed up late and pulled off what’s quite a difficult photograph," Mr Read said.

Runner up in the competition, which was open to the Ripon community, was 12-year-old Martha Jones, from Burton Leonard, whose photo from her window intrigued Mr Read.

He said: "Tonally I love this, and I am intrigued by its abstract nature. But the reason I chose it is because the photographer is 12 and to recognise this as an interesting study at that age is wonderful. Many would have dismissed it as out of focus or a mistake.”

In third place was Ripon Grammar School premises manager Andrew Hogg’s thought-provoking shot of a woman on a bench at Saltburn.

"The graphic composition of this works so well, it feels very melancholy which probably reflects the time we are in. And I like the way it’s been retouched and graded,” said Mr Read, a Ripon Grammar School past pupil now based in Los Angeles.

Fifteen-year-old Isabella Royston’s joyful picture of her dog came in fourth place in the competition, sponsored by Ripon Business Services: “In these turbulent times it’s nice to see an image that conveys such optimism, as well as being a great moment caught,” said Mr Read.

He also highly commended 13-year-old George Glenton’s photograph of his brother Ben jumping on rocks in Dartmoor:

"The scale is impressive, the figure is so small in the frame but is also what you focus on, this is a great use of negative space to emphasize the acrobatic shape," he said.

Mr Read added: "It’s an interesting time for photography as well as one of reflection. Many of the images captured the mood and it was tough to whittle it down to the winners.

"I was especially thrilled by the younger competitors and would encourage them to continue shooting and sharing images."

Tai’s winning photo will now be reproduced on a large canvas.

Having left Ripon Grammar School following his GCSEs this year to study photography at Harrogate Grammar School, Tai said he enjoyed having more time to take pictures in lockdown.

"Honestly it has been the best thing for me, to have time to focus on developing my skills," he said. "Every day I would walk down our lane with my two cats taking photos with different lenses and trying different angles and shutter speeds."

He added he aims to work as a photographer one day.

"I would like to work for National Geographic, being able to travel the world with my camera is a big dream of mine," Tai said.

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