Hard times wins photos final

Hugh Wilkinson from Creative Photo Imaging Club in Northern Ireland was named overall winner at the national finals of this year’s annual Irish Photographic Federation (IPF) Print & Projected Image Competition held in association with Canon Ireland. Hugh was awarded the prestigious award for his image entitled, ‘Hard Times’ taken on his Canon 1DX.

Sponsored by Canon Ireland, the national final was held in Kilkenny on Saturday 21st February and saw members of camera clubs from around the country vying for the coveted national award. As the overall winner, Hugh will receive a Canon EOS 70D DSLR and PIXMA PRO-1 printer allowing him to capture and print beautiful quality images.

Other winners on the day included Des Clinton from Drogheda Photographic Club, who was presented top prize in the monochrome print open category for his piece, “Horse Boys”, Thomas Gray from Dundalk Photographic Society won the colour print theme category with his image “Red Rose Old House”, and winner of the monochrome print theme category, Mark Gorman from Blarney Photographic Club for his piece, “Narrabeen”.

Hugh said: 'My wife and l had a four day break in Krakow a couple of years ago and I went hoping to capture a few shots of the area so I packed my Canon 1DX with a couple of lens and that was me happy! As we were making our way back to our hotel I spotted this lady sitting in a nice quiet secluded area and though this is a great picture. I approached the lady and asked to take her photograph. She eagerly agreed and was happy to oblige. She spoke some English and explained that her life hadn't been easy and that times were hard, hence the title - 'Hard Times'.

“I would like to thank Canon Ireland for the very generous sponsorship of this event. The prizes for winning this event are absolutely fabulous and they will be well used and appreciated by myself. l really do love printing my own photographs and to me, after all the hard work of taking the photograph, processing it, the icing on the cake is printing it. Then it really becomes your work!'