ORGANISERS of a photography competition held at a West Devon hotel say they have been amazed at the response to the event.

During the summer of 2008 local amateur photographers were invited to enter the Lifton Hall Hotel's first photography competition. The competition was open to all age groups and invited photos from five categories:

l Lifton life

l Devon/Cornwall scenery

l Devon/Cornwall coast

l Devon/Cornwall townscape

l Devon/Cornwall wildlife.

Competition organiser, Jon Elworthy, said: 'We'd been trying to find some pictures of the surrounding area and countryside to display in the hotel and add to our website, and thought that a photo competition would also be a good way to involve the local community. We had a great response and received some excellent photos.'

The hotel's owners were overwhelmed by the response from local residents and received more than 70 photographs. After many hours the judges whittled the entries down to 12 finalists.

Prizes are were presented at the hotel last Thursday. The overall winner was Kyle Ronan with a beautiful shot of dusk at Millook, Bude. He receives a night's accommodation for two people at the Lifton Hall Hotel including a three-course dinner in the hotel's restaurant.

Other winners, who each received a meal for two at the hotel, were: Heather Crow, from Bovey Tracey, who won the Lifton Village category; John Courtice, from Lifton, who won the Devon/Cornwall wildlife category; Graeme Bence, from Germansweek, who won the scenery category; Peter Moss, from Callington, who won the coast category and Howie Fowler, of Lifton, who won the townscape category.

Highly commended photos were also received from Robert Williams and JD Gallow.

The hotel will be displaying all 12 finalists until 30 January — anyone is welcome to come to the hotel and view the winning entries.