'˜She always makes funny faces': Portsmouth godmother thrilled to win The News's photography competition
IT WAS nothing more than a fun photograph on day out in Portsmouth '“Â but the happiness captured in the photo was more than enough to win a competition.
The One Summer's Day competition, which was run by The News, aimed to find a photograph that perfectly captured what a summer day in Portsmouth is like.
Dozens of photographs were sent to The News by residents from across the Portsmouth region.
But one photograph stood out from the rest '“Â telling the story of a little girl on a fun day out with her godmother.
Kate Toman, 48 from Baffins, was out with her goddaughter Tilly, age four, when she snapped this candid photo of her eating a strawberry.
The picture has been chosen as the winner of the competition by our judges, who loved the innocent joy of a girl enjoying some quality time in the sunshine.
Kate said: '˜I had been out with Tilly to do some birthday shopping in Portsmouth.
'˜We had been to TK Maxx and it was really hot outside, so we decided to go and get some sandwiches and strawberries to eat.
'˜We sat down to eat our lunch and I just decided it would be nice to take a picture of her.
'˜Tilly and I love our strawberries '“Â though I think she ended up eating most of the packet!
'˜I sent the picture to her grandmother and she said I should send it to The News for a competition they were doing.
'˜I didn't think much of it, but she insisted that it was a really lovely picture.'
Kate says she found it quite a surprise when she was told that she had won the competition.
She said: '˜The News rang me on Thursday to say I had won; I couldn't quite believe it at first.
'˜I thought it was great news '“Â and Tilly seemed really happy too.
'˜She always makes funny faces when we take pictures of her, which is really cute.'
Kate says she's a keen photographer '“Â but you won't see her taking pictures of the Spinnaker Tower with an SLR camera.
She said: '˜I'm always on Instagram putting pictures up '“Â to be honest, most of them are pictures of food.
'˜It's just so easy these days '“Â you can make anything look fantastic just by putting a filter on it.
'˜I think it's great to have competitions like this '“ it's good fun and nice to see your picture in the paper. I haven't told everyone yet so this will be quite a surprise for them!'
The runner-up was the picture by Mary Scobell of her friends enjoying their third Debbie Day, in honour of her sister-in-law.
And third place is Mike Paddock's picture of his dog Ralph.