11/01/2008
Baltimore
lifeboat couple win in RNLI Pentax Photographer of the Year
Competition
A Baltimore couple that volunteer
with the Baltimore RNLI lifeboat have won Best Photograph
in two categories of the RNLI Pentax Photographer of the Year
Competition in London.
The results are being announced
today (Friday 11 January 2008) at a ceremony on the opening
day of the London Boat Show. The winning entries will be exhibited
for the first time at the 2008 London Boat Show. The photographs
provide a unique snapshot into the training and rescue work
of RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew and lifeguards, as witnessed
by them. Entries to the competition have been submitted by
RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew members and RNLI lifeguards and
document the work of the lifesaving charity.
The two award winning Irish
photographs are both taken at Baltimore RNLI lifeboat station
and won in the categories of Best Photograph by an RNLI volunteer
all weather lifeboat crew and Best Photograph by an RNLI volunteer
shore helper. The winning photographers are Eoin Ryan, a volunteer
crewmember with Baltimore lifeboat and his wife Sheelagh Broderick,
the volunteer lifeboat press officer for the station. Judges
in the competition had no idea Eoin and Sheelagh were married
until they contacted them separately with news of their win.
Eoin’s photograph depicts
a coordinated exercise between the Baltimore RNLI lifeboat
and the Sikorsky Coast Guard helicopter based at Shannon on
May 17th 2007. The Sikorsky helicopter hovers over the Lifeboat
as Ciaran McHugh, is winched onto the deck. Baltimore Coxswain
Kieran Cotter is pictured on the bridge of the lifeboat.
Sheelagh’s photograph
is taken from outside the station as the Baltimore lifeboat
launches in storm force winds on July 5th 2007 to go to the
aid of a vessel grounded on rocks at Bull point.
Commenting on the win Eoin
Ryan said, “ Sheelagh and I are delighted that an Irish
lifeboat station is represented in the winning entries for
the RNLI Pentax Photographer of the Year. This is a really
important competition as it encourages RNLI volunteers to
record the amazing work carried out by lifeboat crews everyday.
It will ensure that there will continue to be an amazing archive
of photographs for future generations to look back on.”
Now in its second year, the
RNLI Pentax Photographer of the Year competition was developed
to document the rescue work of the lifesaving charity. All
RNLI lifeboat stations are equipped with digital waterproof
Pentax cameras to enable appropriate real-time, high quality
images of their life-saving activities to be captured.
The overall winning photograph
was taken by Bobby Renaud, an RNLI lifeguard from Cornwall
and shows a lifeguard based at Trevarnon beach, Cornwall battling
through the surf on an Arancia inshore rescue boat during
a training exercise in the summer of 2007.
Commenting on the RNLI Pentax
Photographer of the Year, Andrew Freemantle CBE, RNLI Chief
Executive says:
‘Digital film and photography
are now utilised by the RNLI to record search and rescue operations
and exercises; this greatly assists the vital training of
our volunteer lifeboat crews and lifeguards. Appropriate,
real-time, high-quality digital images of the life-saving
work of our volunteers are not only crucial to operations
but also in raising public awareness of the charity that provides
a 24-hour lifesaving service.’
Founded in 1824, the RNLI
has a long history of capturing rescue images of its volunteer
lifeboat crews at work, with the earliest photograph in the
RNLI’s archive dating back to 1865. Well over a century
later, in 2005, the RNLI’s volunteer lifeboat crews
of both all-weather and inshore lifeboats trialled Pentax
WP digital cameras around the coast. The trials proved so
successful that in January 2006 all RNLI lifeboat stations
were equipped with digital waterproof cameras from Pentax’s
Optio ‘W’ series.
To view the winning photographs click here
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