Professional Photographer of the Year Archives - Destination Wedding Photographer // Malaga, Cornwall, London & Surrey

Wedding Photographer Cornwall, Devon, London

Professional Photographer of the Year. – 2012 Finalist

Recently I got a very positive email, one that lit my face up for sure! That smile that I normally get when receiving a wedding enquiry for somewhere exotic in the world, but this time it was from Professional Photographer Magazine. The email read: ‘I’m pleased to be emailing you to inform you that you have made into the top 20 of the 50mm category for the 2012 Professional Photographer of the Year competition…’

Any photographers will know what this competition is and how it works but for those who don’t here is a little insight in to the reason for my smile; Professional Photographer of the Year is one of those competitions that you put a couple of pictures into every year, for almost the sake of saying you have done it, you never really expect to here anything more about it until you see the winners published a few months later – its something that just slips to the back of your mind, so this email really did come out of the blue! There are several categories, of which I entered 4, and the picture below is one of my frames that has made the top 20 finalist list for this seasons Professional Photographer of the Year awards in the 50mm category.

I am really delighted to be acknowledge this way as it means other professionals who I admire have picked out my work amongst hundreds of others! This is not a competition that is about how many people can you get to say ‘likes’ your picture but instead is judged my other professionals in the field.

As for the picture itself, I shot this frame at a Wedding in Torquay, Devon last summer during the canapé hour, doing my normal rounds of guest candids at the wedding, and this was the result of catching two separate moments in the same frame from behind another guest. For the competition I have given it the rather cheesy name of ‘love is all around’. The picture really sums up my attitude towards wedding photography, in the sense that a wedding is all about the little moments, and having a photojournalistic view, documentary approach, reportage way of shooting; or whatever you want to call it, having this basic mindset at the heart of the way one approaches wedding photography, allows for these moments to be documented and never be forgotten. :)

You can see a complete list of all the finalist here. Check out page 12! :)

Barney Walters PPOTY12

– by Barney Walters

Category: Professional Photographer of the Year

Professional Photographer of the Year. – 2012 Finalist