Town's camera club captures life in lockdown in Chatteris

The F-Stop Camera Club, Chatteris created a project which invited people from the whole community to submit photographs that best represented their personal Covid19 lockdown experience.

The aim was to create a lasting, pictorial documentation of what life in lockdown was like for residents, businesses and groups within Chatteris, with the production of a photo book, as well as forwarding the images to the Chatteris Community Archive.

As an added extra, the F-Stop Camera Club Committee picked a winning entry with the photographer winning a £20 Amazon gift voucher.

Closing date for entries was July 31 and since then, the committee have gone through all the entries and after a very close call, an overall winner was selected.

The accolade went to Alex Ashley who sent in the following:

"During lockdown I have managed to continue running as this was something that we were allowed to continue doing. As well as this, I have continued to work throughout as the industry I work in is classed as 'key work'.

"The image 'Uphill tranquility' was taken at the end of a run as I was coming back into Chatteris. One thing that has been noticeable during this time is the lack of cars on the road.

"Ferry Hill can be a very busy road at times, and a killer to ride/run up at any time. But on this sunny Sunday afternoon, it was completely silent. I took this opportunity to take a snap of one of the town's oldest roads from the middle of it due to the calmness.

"To me this represents one of the positives of this pandemic, which is the peacefulness which has been found where there is usually hardly any."

A very close runner-up was Jane Mason.

She said: "Beating the lockdown by growing my own potatoes - don’t they look splendid."

Tina Prior, the camera club's publicity officer, said: "Congratulations to them both and thank you to everyone who submitted a photograph. The photo book will now be organised and when complete will be housed in the Chatteris library for people to view. Images will also be uploaded onto the Chatteris Community Archive website: www.chatteris.ccan.co.uk"

Next for the F-Stop Camera Club is a possible exhibition at the parish church in the autumn.

Anyone with an interest in photography, whatever their skill level or ability are welcome to join the club. Details are on the club's FaceBook page and also in the closed FaceBook group.

Tina added: "We are a friendly bunch who seek to share our passions for photography and support others in theirs. Once lockdown restrictions ease further, we hope to recommence with monthly meetings and photography events."