Young Elisha is picture perfect

Thu 28th January 2010 1.58PM

ASPIRING young photographer Elisha Diamond doesn’t just point and shoot her camera, she composes each and every shot. This attention to detail has seen the 15-year-old King’s Girls’ Division pupil from Walton Heath, Tytherington, come runner-up, out of more than 300 entries, in the Merchant Taylors’ Schools’ Photographic Competition. Elisha’s black and white shot of a tributary to the Lady Bower Reservoir near the Snake Pass, was one of 100 entries from the Macclesfield school, whittled down to a top 20 for entry to the competition.

Elisha, who has wants to study photography at university with a long term view to becoming a fashion photographer, said: “I don’t go around looking for great photographs, but if a I happen to see a shot when I am out and about then I will have to take it.” She added: “It’s a far more demanding discipline than I would have ever thought and often I just have to experiment with the different settings on the camera to get exactly the right effect.” "For this shot I had the camera set on as wide an aperture as possible to maximise the effect of the flowing water and to capture its energy and movement.” King’s Girls’ Division Senior Subject Teacher in Art, Rachel Richards said: “Elisha is a very talented young artist and is able to conceptualise and capture original ideas.” King’s is one of six schools in London, the North West, Northern Ireland and the Home Counties to be founded by a former member of the ancient livery company.

Each year the Merchant Taylors’ Company celebrates this 500 year-old association with a student photography competition with the winning entries exhibited in its London head quarters in Threadneedle Street, neighbouring the Bank of England. Elisha wins £50 and a mounted and framed print of her own winning entry.