STUNNING scenes from around the world will be on show as a popular annual exhibition returns to Dorchester’s Borough Gardens House.

While some photographers have gone to the ends of the earth for a great shot, others have looked little further than their back door for works featuring in the Dorset Independent Photographers exhibition.

The images will be on show from Monday, August 17 to Sunday, August 23 from 10am to 5pm.

Some of the works capture scenes from as far as New Zealand’s South Island while many celebrated the beauty of Dorset.

The photographs themselves have been taking on everything from a plate camera to a smart phone.

The exhibition is being sponsored by Nantes Solicitors and has become a firm fixture in the local visual arts calendar.

The six photographers included in the exhibition include Andy White, who is displaying some images from a trip to New Zealand this year depicting the country’s dramatic landscape and eye-catching landmarks such as the Moeraki Boulders on the South Island.

He said: “I have been lucky enough to have visited three times and each time I have been blessed with wonderful light.”

At the other end of the planet, John Tilsley had included images from a trip to Iceland, as he attempted to give a sense of the huge scale of the stark landscape with its massive geological features.

The Dorchester Camera Club chairman said: “The contrast between the snow and ice and the black volcanic rock and sand was magical.”

Dorchester photographer Barbara Jenkins uses a more local inspiration for her works as she is inspired by the elemental forces in her home county.

She said: “I am fascinated by the continual changing play of light on the water, particularly as the sun starts to rise, and in the evening as it sets.”

Also drawing on local inspiration is Malcolm Macnaughton, who is interested in areas documented by Thomas Hardy and includes a work featuring Rushy Pond in Thorncombe Wood close to the author’s birth place.

He said: “Rushy Pond has been in existence for over 125 years, having been mentioned in Hardy’s short story, The Withered Arm, written in 1888.”

The other photographers featured in the exhibition are fellow Dorchester snapper Tim Edwards and Ian Chapman, another founder member of the group who also focusses on the wonders west Dorset has to offer.

Mr Chapman, from Portesham, said: “Sometimes the most exciting subjects can be found just 15 minutes from your front door.”

Mr Edwards said that his works for the exhibition were ‘30 years in the making’.