We’re absolutely thrilled that our recipe writer (and photographer) Joan Ransley was an award winner at last night’s Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Awards. (Pink Lady is the trademark for the Pink Lady apple variety, in case you were wondering).
She was runner up in the Food For Celebration category with her photograph of Christmas geese. Isn’t it great? Amazing when you think Joan only took up photography a couple of years ago to accompany her food writing.
Remarkable also when you learn that 6000 images were entered for the awards, reduced to a shortlist 400 by a prestigious team of judges that included David Loftus, Donna Hay, Yotam Ottolenghi and Jay Rayner.
Last week Joan was telling me she hadn’t a hope in hell, but at the Mall Galleries last night in her posh frock and with champagne in hand, she heard her named called. Talking to her today, she was busy praising all the other winners: ‘It’s such an intelligent exhibition’, she said, ‘the Food Politics category was really fascinating.’ She also noted that the Food in its Place was won by Jonathan Gregson for his photographs of coffee in Rwanda for Taylors of Harrogate. The overall winner Tessa Bunney, whose image of noodle making in Vietnam is full of movement and vitality was a worthy winner and she is, by coincidence from North Yorkshire.
Joan’s own photograph was taken on a smallholding in Lower Austby, near Ilkley, near where she lives. She remembers getting very muddy as she chased the geese and the geese chased her. ‘I was really pleased I got a sharp image because I was running around and getting low down. I was on the move all the time.’ She converted the image to black and white and then ‘colour popped’ the feet and beaks. ‘I didn’t do anything to the colour, that’s just how orange they were. I just ‘popped’ the colour back in’.
Of course we always knew she was good photographer, that’s why we invited her to join us to write and photograph the recipes for Squidbeak.
If you want to follow Joan she has her own website www.joanransley.co.uk and if you want to see her recipes on Squidbeak and all the news on Yorkshire food then follow us on Facebook and sign up for our newsletter.