Countryfile photo competition winner is . . .

Last month, I wrote a post about the BBC's Countryfile photo competition. It's an annual affair, with tens of thousands of submissions for spots in the program's charity calendar.

Somehow, inexplicably, regrettably, unfathomably, I didn't win. I wasn't included among the final twelve. Quelle horreur!!!

This past Sunday, the show announced its two winners. One winning photograph was chosen by popular voting. That winner gets the cover of the calendar, as well as £1,000 to spend on photographic equipment. The second winner is the choice of the judges, who receives £500 to spend on photographic equipment. Although it didn't happen this year, the same photograph could win both the judges' choice and the popular vote.

The 2014 popular vote winner is David Smith, a bricklayer who describes himself as a photography "hobbyist." (As a beginning hobbyist, there's hope for me in the future.) Smith took his photo on a pig farm in Norfolk. Although the Countryfile show did not disclose the number of votes, it did say that Smith's photo was the clear winner in the popular voting.

"Piglets on Parade" was the winner of the popular vote.

The 2014 judges' choice is a photo by Susie Mulholland, from Somerset. I think that's her name. It was hard to understand the name as announced on the show, and so far I haven't been able to find any further information regarding the winners or other contestants. Her photo of cows reflected in water was my favorite of the twelve finalists, and I cast my vote for it.

The judges picked "Curious Cattle" as their favorite. Me, too.

FYI, the image quality of these online photos is low. The real photos in the calendar will be much better quality -- they look stunning on television. My assumption is that the image quality of the online photos has purposefully been kept poor so that no one can use the photos commercially.

Proceeds of the calendar sales go to charity, the BBC Children in Need. Last year they sold more than 300,000 calendars and raised £1,452,219, the highest amount ever. At current exchange rates, that's $2,336,548.

If you want to buy the 2015 calendar -- and I hope you will -- it costs £9.50. That includes delivery in the U.K; delivery outside the U.K. costs only £2.75 per calendar, which is darn cheap. At least £4.00 of every calendar sold will go to the charity. You can purchase the calendar at: https://www.hcscalendar.co.uk/

For the next few weeks, the Countryfile show with an interview of winner David Smith is available on the BBC's web site. The segment about the calendar starts at the 41st minute, if you want to skip ahead.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lbtjl