From time to time our chum Joan Ransley contributes to Squidbeak with a delicious recipe accompanied by one of her fabulous photos; she’s largely self-taught so is obviously brimming over with natural talent. It’s not just us that thinks so; she’s won several awards for her food photography including 3rd prize in this years Pink Lady competition. I’ve never asked her how it had all come about – so I did! This is what she said.
‘As a food writer I often found myself short of photographs of food for the
features I was working on. Filing photographs with my recipes and food stories made my work more saleable. So I bought a DSLR camera, read the instruction book, went on photography course and within six months I was beginning to take really good photographs. In 2013 the Gallery on the Green in Settle (housed in an old red telephone box) asked me to mount an exhibition of Yorkshire food using the images I had taken for my recipe features published in the Yorkshire Post. It was a great success and helped me to believe in my work.
The following year I sent my first entries into the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year never thinking for a moment I would make it to the finals. My image ‘Let’s Scarper’ showing a gaggle of geese running into the woods and was awarded a third place. In 2015 I made it to the finals again with ‘Bonfire apples’ which was awarded a 2nd place and this year ‘Late night Artisan Pizza van’ picked up a 3rd prize. Having success in the competition has been a great boost to my work’. We’re very proud of Joan and we love her work – take a look, you will too.