Press Photography Awards
The First ScotRail Press Photography Awards has unveiled its shortlist of nominated photographers.
For the fourth consecutive year, First ScotRail is title sponsor of the Scottish press photgraphy awards which have grown in status since being resurrected in 2005.
Last year, Denis Straughan was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to Scottish press photography. This year, he has joined the judging panel that's chaired by photographer and former picture editor of The Sun, Ken Lennox.
The other judges are; Anthony Bell, picture editor at The Observer Magazine; Colin Prior, landscape and outdoor photographer and Frank Bradford, lecturer, photographer and former national newspaper picture editor. Chris Hoy, Scotland's quadruple Olympic gold medallist has agreed to help judge the sports category.
A record 3100 images submitted across 14 categories, 42 photographers and nine newspapers and/or magazines have been shortlisted by the judging panel.
The public can vote online at www.scottishppa.com to decide the winner of the 12 shortlisted images in the Open category. Votes can be cast until 12 March.
The winners will be announced on 26 March at an awards ceremony in Glasgow where as an additional supporter of the Student and Young Photographer categories, Nikon will provide winners with a fabulous camera.
Ken Lennox, chairman of the judges, is impressed by the standard of entries: “The judging panel has once again had the opportunity to view and shortlist some truly outstanding images across categories that reflect the rich tapestry of Scottish life.
“The images submitted for the features category were inventive, fun and well executed while some shots in the sport categories raised a smile and portrayed plenty of drama.
“The Student category is also very strong. Clearly, entrants have worked extremely hard to pull together their submissions. Overall, entries have once again been of a very high standard, reflecting Scotland’s rich seam of photographic talent.”
See just a small selection of the nominated photography in our gallery (left).