I am pleased to annouce that on Sunday evening I was named the Overall Winner of the SWPP Member’s Wedding Photography Competition.

The award was presented to me at the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photogarphers) Annual Awards Dinner held on Sunday evening in London. The dinner was held during the SWPP’s six day convention which sees photographers from all over the world converge on the Novotel Hotel to attend numerous photography seminars, classes and a large trade show. Over the 5 days the convention attracted over 12,000 visitors!

Unfortunately I was only able to attend the convention for part of the Saturday which was a shame as I would have loved to have been there longer (I broke down on the M25 whilst traveling ot the show but’s that’s a whole other story!). There were a host of great photographers speaking at the event including Joe Photo, Kevin Kubota, Jeff Ascough, Mark Seymour and Jose Villa. With over 400 people in the room, the awards dinner itself was a great experience.

Numerous awards were handed out including 15 category winners from the SWPP monthly competitions and an overall wedding photographer of the year award. My own particular award was voted for by the SWPP members on the society’s forum; each week members were invited to submit their favourite wedding image within a particular category with each of the weekly winners going forward to the annual vote – of which my image came top.

I also found out that I also came third in the Traditional Wedding Photographer of the Year Award, obviously it would have been lovely to win this also but I am more than happy with the award I did receive!

I have posted my winning image below, together with a photo of me collecting my award on stage from Jon Jenkins. What a great start to 2009!