Two Galway entrants are among the category winners in this year's Love Your Coast photography competition, which celebrates Ireland's spectacular coastline.
For the past 12 years, the Love Your Coast competition has been about capturing the essence of the Irish coastline, its beauty, and its diverse character. The competition is an integral part of the Clean Coasts programme. This year's winners were announced at a virtual awards ceremony at the weekend.
This year's competition saw two Galway photographers score top places in two categories. Myles Lambert took home first place in the Coastal Heritage category for his picture, Remains of the Day, taken in Connemara, and Timothy Beck placed second in the People and the Coast category for his image, entitled Old Sea Dog, taken in Galway city.
Derek Bolton, with a picture titled Colm and the Worm Hole, and Enda O’Loughlin, with the photograph Shadows on the Fisherman’s Cottage, were shortlisted in the top 10 images for the People and the Coast category and Creativity and the Coast category respectively.
Being Ireland’s foremost community-based coastal programme, Clean Coasts counts on the work of nearly 2,000 volunteer groups nationwide to help protect our coastline, waterways, seas, ocean, and marine life. Once more, Clean Coasts’ volunteers and groups have been eager to support the fight against marine pollution. Clean Coasts' mission is to foster pride in our coastline and waterways and each year the Love Your Coast competition is an opportunity to see this reflected in the entries.
This year's Love Your Coast competition received almost 1,300 entries, the most entries it has had to date.
The competition had a prize fund of €5,000 for the amateur photographers competing in five categories: Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People and the Coast, Wildlife and the Coast, and a new category for 2021, Creativity and the Coast.
The 50 best shots were shortlisted by the Love Your Coast judges for an online gallery.
"This is the 12th year of the competition and it has been very successful and very well received and we have seen some of the most amazing photographs of our coast over the last number of years," said Michael John O'Mahony, director of the Environmental Education Unit. "This is more than just a photography competition: we are an island nation and our coast and marine environment are incredibly important to us. Clean Coasts has almost 2,000 volunteer groups who are doing amazing work when it comes to managing and protecting our marine environment, so these photographs are a way for everybody to appreciate and celebrate our coast and be inspired to get involved too."
