Mid Argyll-based landscape photographer and regular Argyllshire Advertiser contributor Aileen Gillies has placed second in a national competition.
While readers will be more used to seeing Aileen’s Amazing Argyll photos in these pages, it was actually a photo taken while on a trip to Pitlochry’s Enchanted Forest in October which caught the judges’ eyes.
As a member of Ford Scottish Women’s Institute for the past two and a half years, and now vice president and treasurer, Aileen entered the national Scottish Women’s Institutes’ photographic competition, along with nearly 80 other entries.
She was delighted to hear last week that she had been awarded second place.
Belonging to the SWI runs in the family too, as her mum was a member and her granny a member of the SWI in Kilmartin.
There are now only two SWIs in the area, but they are always encouraging new members to go along, with Ford meeting in the village hall on the first Tuesday of each month at 7.30pm (September to May, apart from January) and Lochgilphead meeting in the parish church hall on the third Tuesday of each month at 7.15pm.
In the photographic competition, first place went to a photo of pink and yellow roses against a black backdrop from Helen Hyland at Gargunnock SWI.
The judges from the SWI were Clare Greig, SWI president Mary Burney and events manager Charlotte Hughes.