HIPA 2013 Competition Finalist

I am delighted to announce that in this year's Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) Photo Competition, I reached the finals of the Black and White category with one of my images.

HIPA is the world's largest photographic and most coveted Awards competition in terms of the prize money awarded ($389,000) and the number of photographers that enter from across the Globe.

The competition result was announced on Monday night and although I just missed out on winning an award, making it to the finals is a big achievement in itself given the very high quality of work and the sheer number of entries, so to say I am pleased would be a big understatement. To put it into perspective, there were 38,203 images entered by 26,006 photographers from 156 countries and there were 12 other finalists from the UK along with me.

The image that helped me become a finalist was one I had taken this past September on the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands of the infamous Quiraing. The mysterious, dramatic and beautiful landscape of the Isle of Skye, in any light/conditions is nothing short of majestic. As the light continued to change during this morning, I had to keep reminding myself to capture it on camera as I kept getting lost in the view.

My other two entries in the General and Creating the Future categories managed to make it to the second round of judging but not to the third round.

When I received notification that my image had made it past the third stage into the fourth and final stage, I was over the moon and promptly sent of the appropriate documentation that was requested and waiting patiently to hear the results. When the deadline past and I did not hear further, as disappointed as I was, I was still extremely proud of my achievement and the winning photographers are to be congratulated - their images are simply stunning and very much deserved the prizes. Do check the winning and finalist images out at the following link if you haven't already:

I have been informed that a number of the shortlisted photographs (according to their rankings) are chosen to be part of the annual HIPA book, of which my image is one, and all remaining shortlisted photographs are included in the gallery above. All shortlisted photographs will be used by HIPA during their international roadshow throughout the year so will be showcased and seen around the world.

Many thanks to everyone at HIPA for the honour of being a finalist in your prestigious competition, congratulations again on another great year and I wish you every success in future years. Congratulations again to all the finalists and winners this year.

HIPA 2013 Finalist - Quiraing, Isle of Skye, Scotland