Ashley’s Duffield Calendar Photo Shortlisted For Major Award

An image of Duffield’s Eyes Meadow in autumn could win Milford-based photographer Ashley Franklin a major prize.

As well as being one of Amber Valley’s best known photographers, Ashley writes Nailed’s “Milford & Makeney Brief”, and creates both the Belper and Duffield Calendars, with photographs from across the year.  Last month Ashley won Gold for Landscape Photographer of the Year.

Ashley’s photo of Eyes Meadow, taken on a bright, mist-strewn November morning, has been shortlisted in the Trees, Woods & Forests category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) 2019.

Ashley said, “I am elated with this recognition. This is one of the world’s most prestigious photo competitions, attracting around 19,000 entries from 50 countries across the globe, so just to be shortlisted is reason enough to break out the bubbly!”

Now in its thirteenth year, IGPOTY “showcases the very best in plant, garden and botanical photography.”

Ashley told us, “This competition is a celebration of not just gardens and flowers but the parks, fields and forests across the planet and if my image is selected for the book and touring exhibition, it will be wonderful to see Duffield’s Eyes Meadow highlighted as one of the glories of nature.”

Ashley’s 2020 Calendar also includes the snowbound hills around St Alkmund’s church (which is also pictured amidst a mist-strewn autumn sunrise), May blossom in the village, a train steaming out of Duffield Station on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, montages of the Duffield Carnival, Millennium Meadow and the Scarecrow Trail, as well as an image of Green Belt land in the Cumberhills Road area, which has been saved from extensive housing following a successful local campaign.

Ashley is seeking help with one of the calendar images: the front cover, which depicts Duffield Bank from the river.

He explains, “There is a house nestled in the hillside and I would love to know who lives there so I can gift them a copy.”

The 2018 Duffield Calendar is the 13th to be produced by Ashley and he feels it’s his best yet.

“Yes, I know I say that every year,” said Ashley, “but I really believe I have eclipsed all my previous calendars.”

Ashley’s Duffield Calendar is on sale at Duffield News, Duffield Post Office, Duffield Squash & Tennis Club and Croots Farm Shop, priced at £9.