LCE Photographer of the Year 2024 category winner.
The inaugural winners of the LCE Photographer of the Year were announced today at The Photography & Video Show - with a stunning image of a bat caught in mid-flight at night winning the overall prize for Marilyn Taylor. She wins £5,000 of vouchers to spend at leading UK photo retailer London Camera Exchange.
Shot with an OM System OM-1, the stunning image was taken in at a remote location in northern Costa Rica in December 2022. "It was dark, so it was very difficult to see these tiny bats flying like ghosts", explains Marliyn.
We could only photograph for a short time as they soon flew off somewhere else. This was probably one of the most interesting ‘shoots’ I’ve ever been on - it was absolutely fascinating. The fact that I got a couple of super images out of it was a terrific bonus".
Marilyn picked up a flyer about the competition in an LCE store whilst buying a second camera body, and entered ten different categories in the competition.
Yaks Nupse - the winner of the People's Choice award. Not a genre of photography, nor a category you could enter. Life is not a popularity contest, but this category is! (Image credit: Patrick Pfirrmann)
There were nearly 13,000 entries in the 2024 competition, with a staggering 7,000 votes for the People's Choice category - which was won by Patrick Pfirrmann for his travel image of yaks and a sherpa coming around a corner on a path in the Himalayas. He wins a £500 voucher to spend at LCE.
In addition the 13 category winners also win a £500 voucher. Their winning images can be seen below:
Incoming Gannets - winner of the Birds category, and overall runner-up. Shot with a Canon EOS R6 from a boat around Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, UK. (Image credit: Linda Ariss)Sailing - winner of the Abstract category. Shot at West Kirby, Merseyside, UK. Shot with a Sony A6600 with intentional camera movement using a shutter speed of 1/2sec. (Image credit: David Higton)Sunset at Shiprock, Navajo Nation, New Mexico, USA – winner of the Landscape category. Shot with an Olympus E-M1 Mark II (Image credit: Curtis Blum)Haldon Belvedere Misty Sunrise, Devon - winner of the Drone category - shot with a DJI Mavic 3. (Image credit: Daryl Baker)Valencia Opera House - the winner in the Travel category & Overall Runner-up. It was shot with a Nikon Z50 with an exposure of 90 seconds (Image credit: Graeme Hilditch)Anti Gravity Dog - winner of the Pets category - shot with a Sony A7R III with a shutter speed of 1/125sec. (Image credit: Daniel Sheridan)Authenticity is a New Future - winner of the Portrait category, shot with a Sony A7R IV. (Image credit: Lora Arkhypenko)The Last Train - the winner in the Street category. The image was shot with a LAVA Iris 702 cameraphone. (Image credit: A B M Nayeem Siddiquee)Long Tongued Bat Approaching Banana Leaf - winner of the Wildlife category, and the overall LCE Photographer of the Year (Image credit: Marilyn Taylor)Speedstars - winner of the Action category. Taken with a Canon EOS 450D. (Image credit: Kaushik Majumder)Wasp Trio Drinking - winner of the Macro category. This image is from a summer project in 2023, looking into the lives of the common wasp through photos taken over several weeks in different weather and lighting, shot with a Nikon D850. (Image credit: Ian Mears)You!! - winner of the Music category. The lead singer of Amon Amarth, Johan Hegg, live at Brixton Academy - shot with a Canon EOS 5D III. (Image credit: Dominic Beaven)Ready to Depart - winner of the After Dark category. This photo was taken at West India Quay Station, on the Docklands Light Railway with a Nikon Z6. Motion blur and new headlights using Photoshop’s light flare tool to make this photo stand out. (Image credit: Alexander Howard)
A gallery of the shortlisted images can be seen at The Photography & Video Show, which runs at the NEC, Birmingham, UK until Tuesday March 19.
Watch out for details of next year’s LCE Photographer of the Year 2025 which will be announced later this year.
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