The Hour

This month’s theme allowed The Hour viewers to get truly creative. Martin Shields picked an open theme, meaning anything you think makes a nice picture was welcome. Pictures varied from landscapes to portraits and everything in between, and the response was excellent both in volume and quality.

This month it was particularly difficult to pick only five pictures due to the incredible variety, but Martin eventually found his favourite and runners up.

The first picture was from David Richardson in Linwood, and captured a cyclist in flight, with rolling clouds in the background.

“This was a lovely shot, a real action shot” said Martin. “I thought the photographer had caught the guy in the perfect position for his bike. A terrific picture.”

Next was an entry from Liz Stewart in Largs. Her picture captured a little girl against an ethereal background.

Martin noticed that “the backlight was just so white and airy” and thought it was “a real, nice, natural picture”.

Other favourites included a snap submitted by Mike Hatton-McBeth of a lone tree sitting in the shadows of a stormy background cry, and a snap of two performers at the recent Mela festivities in Scotland, sent in by viewer Bill Blenman. 

In photography, timing is important, and Martin’s favourite proved this. Douglas Archibald in Paisley submitted a picture of two boats illuminated by sun light, against the backdrop of a cloudy loch and hills.

“I thought this was a brilliant shot,” said Martin. “I think it’s a well timed shot, the sun has came out and just beamed down on these colourful boats, with the dark clouds of Mordor in the background”.

Martin’s next theme is back to school, so if you want to be in with a shot of your photographs being featured, get snapping and send your pictures to thehour@stv.tv.

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