Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography Awards were held on 31st October, honouring artists who captured Ireland’s spectacular and diverse coastline in stunning images.
Now in its eighth year, Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography Competition is all about capturing the essence of the Irish coast. Four amazing images from Donegal won top places in the five categories of the competition.
Bren Whelan was number two in the People & the Coast category with this powerful shot of the Lough Foyle RNLI and an Irish Coast Guard rescue helicopter.
In the Underwater category, Alan Cranston earned a number one place for this basking shark feeding off Culdaff.
An impressive image of waves at Fanad Head Lighthouse by John Hall was placed at number three in Coastal Heritage photos.
Darragh Gorman’s striking shot of the rugged rocks of Port was shortlisted in the top 10 Coastal Landscape images.
Clean Coasts launched the Love Your Coast Photography Competition in May during Coca-Cola Clean Coasts Week and with a prize fund of €5,000 it attracted huge interest from Ireland’s amateur photographers.
The difficult task of judging this year’s competition was undertaken by Ken O’Sullivan – Documentary Filmmaker, Brenda Fitzsimmons – Irish Times, Naoise Culhane – Professional Photographer, Keith O’Hara – InstaIreland, Micheal John O’Mahony – Director, Environmental Education Unit, An Taisce, Philip O’Donovan – Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Eoin McDonnell – Failte Ireland.
Sinead McCoy, Coastal Communities Manager, said: “The images submitted to the Love Your Coast Awards this year was of an extremely high standard and illustrating the vast character of our coastline from Fanad in Donegal to the Skelligs in Kerry, from dolphins to surfers and from families enjoying a day out at the beach to dramatic seascapes, these photographs truly captured the essence of the Irish Coastline.”
A gallery of all the winning photographs can be found on www.cleancoasts.org or on Facebook/CleanCoasts.
Clean Coasts is operated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce and is supported by the Department of the Housing, Planning and Local Government, and Fáilte Ireland.
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