NI students tops All-Island photo prize

The students from Jordanstown School and Regent House Grammar School were presented with their awards at a gala ceremony in Dublin. These included three students with auditory impairment from Jordanstown School: Tommy Kelly (aged 10) who won first prize for his photo depiction called ‘digital boy’; Sara Kelly (aged 9) was placed second for her creative image of colourful marbles and Michael Hudson (aged 17) was placed third for his image ‘digital school bus’. Other winners from Northern Ireland included Anna Moles (aged 17) from Regent House Grammar School who won second place in the discovery category for her digital photo called ‘car blur’.

Commenting at the prize giving ceremony, Billy Stickland, Managing Director of Inpho Photography and one of the judges of the Digital Imagination competition, said:

“The standard of entries was noticeably higher than previous years and we were blown away by the calibre of photographs which we had to judge. In particular the standard of photo’s from Northern Ireland has produced four winners and fantastic pictures. It shows that you don't have to elaborate too much, all you need is an awareness of things that go on around you.”

As part of the award, each student will receive a HP Photosmart Digital Camera and Digital Printer as well as securing HP camera equipment for their school.

The Digital Imagination competition aims to further the use of photography inhomes and classrooms to inspire, delight and educate a new generation of students in a growing digital age. The competition is sponsored by HP and eircom broadband and was open to over 4,200 schools on the island of Ireland. Students from primary, post primary and special needs schools had to take a picture using any type of camera under the competition themes of Discovery, Colour or Our World for primary schools; or Discovery, Identity or Diversity for post primary schools.