On Sunday 16th of January I was delighted to be awarded The 2010 Travel Photographer of the Year Award by the
Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP). Every year in January the SWPP hold their week long annual conference, with hundreds of lectures and training events, a trade show which all ends with the Awards Dinner. Throughout 2010 a monthly image competition was run where you can enter 1 image per category per month and over the course of the year thousands of entries are submitted and less than 2% are awarded 'Gold' awards, which then go to final judging for the annual awards. Over the course of the year, as you will see in the previous post, I won 17 Gold awards across various categories of which the picture of the man in Marrakech was narrowed down to the final 3 of the Travel Category. This image was taken when I was in Marrakech to photograph a wedding in May of which thanks must go to
Siobhan Murphy Photography for passing the couple on to me in the first place. The Awards dinner was hosted by TV personality Philippa Forrester, who's husband is an acclaimed wildlife photographer and videographer in his own right and I have to admit, I really never expected to win. When I was named as winner, it was a very proud moment for me and although it may sound a bit Cliché, after my Grand Father who had given me my first camera to learn with, had passed away 2 weeks earlier, there is really only one person to dedicate the award to.
The judges comments about the image were as follows. '
Interesting and intriguing image of the man, cat robe and bike. A lot to see and gives the feeling that you want to know more'.
So, as a
Wedding Photographer in Lancashire who is Travel Photographer of the Year, I can now offer a fantastic service to Bride and Grooms. When you go on honeymoon, take me, I will go out and take all your photos of the local area and you will not need to leave your hotel room. But in all seriousness, I hope you all enjoy looking at the images I take and if any invoke a smile or a good memory then it means everything to me.
Below, is the winning image and an image courtesy of the SWPP of me being presented with the award by Phil Jones, Societies CEO.
The Winning Image
