I was awarded First Place in the “Patterns in Nature” category by East London Waterworks Park Photo Contest for my image Kaleidoscope. The photograph was later displayed by the London-based charity that organised the competition, giving the work a public platform beyond my own portfolio.
I first heard about the contest through a university lecturer who shared it on Instagram. At the time, I had been revisiting unedited material from my Costa Rica expedition, reviewing images that had not made it into my final degree exhibition. That period of reassessment led me to look at the work with a fresh perspective. When I saw the competition theme, it aligned closely with what I had been rediscovering in the rainforest images, particularly the strength of natural pattern and repetition.
The submitted photograph focused on the intricate textures of an Owl Fly wing in the Costa Rican rainforest. The strength of the photograph lay in what initially caught my eye during the encounter: the layered geometry and subtle variation across the wings and body.
Winning First Place was a rewarding outcome. Although the competition was smaller in scale than some others I had entered, the recognition was meaningful. Having the image exhibited through the charity’s platform reinforced that strong work can continue to emerge from existing material, even after a project has officially concluded.
Above, is the full image taken before I moved closer to create the detailed focus stack of the wing.
In this wider frame, the repeating forms and structural symmetry of the insect’s wings were immediately striking.
