{"id":1189647,"date":"2026-09-06T12:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T12:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1189647\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T12:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T12:50:17","slug":"herefordshire-photographer-earns-place-in-bbc-countryfile-calendar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1189647\/","title":{"rendered":"Herefordshire photographer earns place in BBC Countryfile calendar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Cliff Spooner, from Withington near Hereford, is one of only 12 finalists selected from thousands of entries to this year&#8217;s Countryfile photographic competition.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  His picture, showing two common frogs at the surface of a wildlife pond in his garden, perfectly reflected in the water, has been chosen to illustrate February in the charity calendar.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Spooner said he was delighted to be selected.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I dug that pond and I&#8217;ve spent a lot of cold mornings lying next to it on my elbows,&#8221; he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I never imagined I&#8217;d make the final 12. It&#8217;s a lovely thing to happen, and even better that the calendar raises money for Children in Need.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A geologist by training, Mr Spooner is a former chairman of Herefordshire Photographic Society and a member of the Hereford Times Camera Club.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=herefordtimes.com&amp;ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Ensure you never miss a Hereford Times headline. Click here to add the Hereford Times as a Preferred Source in Google Search<\/strong><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  All 12 finalist images were featured on BBC One&#8217;s Countryfile on Sunday, with viewers now voting to decide which picture will appear on the calendar&#8217;s front cover.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Voting closes at 10am on Monday, September 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cliff Spooner, from Withington near Hereford, is one of only 12 finalists selected from thousands of entries to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1189648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":["post-1189647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117224185885593230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1189648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}