Elizabeth College student wins young photographer award

Monday, 3 February 2025 at 14:35

Ajax Amy’s capture of a bee in flight was unanimously chosen by the Pollinator Project team as the winner of the first Barry Wells Award.

Set up in honour of the charity's co-founder, who passed away last year, the Barry Wells Award is meant to encourage Guernsey school children to appreciate pollinators.

Sharon Hickman from the Pollinator Project says the whole team was impressed by Ajax's skills.

“Judging is always a tough job, but we all agreed that this image perfectly captured a moment in time and showed the close relationship between pollinators and flowers.

Catching any flying creature is a real skill and Ajax did a great job”

Ajax is a student at Elizabeth College and captured his photo with a smartphone while completing a school project in Candie Gardens.

He didn’t tell his family he had entered the competition until he received his invite to the awards ceremony.

He won £500 and a gift membership of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

The image shows a common carder bee, one of Guernsey’s 6 species of bumblebees.

Jayne Wells, who presented the award, said Barry had boundless enthusiasm for photography and protecting Guernsey’s nature, and would have loved the entries.

“He was an inspiration to so many people and it is lovely to see that the donations made in his memory have gone to help young photographers.

Anyone that knew him will know that he amassed all sorts of cameras and lenses but often it was a snap on a smartphone that worked just as well”.