Awards - awenphotos.uk

June 2019 and after three years of trying, I have finally cracked Gold Standard with the Guild of photographers. Ben Lomond with winter showers

A significant photo for me as this is my first ever Silver award taking my skills to a new level. This is Glenfinnan, probably now best known as being "that" viaduct the steam train in the Harry Potter films crosses over on its way to Hogwarts.

My second Silver award, pleased with this one, Eilean Lubhard from the South Lochs on the Isle of Lewis

Kilchurn Castle. My third Silver award and my first for 2019. A still morning in March 2019.

The Kyles of Bute. My first "High Bronze", a new category added in 2019 to help photographers judge how close they came to a silver award.

Aberfoyle mist, my second ever High Bronze

My third "High" bronze award. An image of Ben Lomond as seen from the Campsies. You may notice the spin drift at the summit, caused by circulating high winds. Pleased with this one as it was taken with a 20 year old prime lens that is actually missing some of it's elements, most people would have thrown it away, but I kept it for some reason and I have found how to best use it now. Proof you don't need the latest, sharpest lenses to win awards.

My fourth High Bronze at the Loup of Fintry at sunset. I was captured by the gold reflection on moss that only lasted for ten seconds

An image from Finnich Glen taken just before xmas 2017 resulted in my first award in 2018. Taken using my new combination of D500 and Sigma 18 - 35mm F1.8 Art lens

Loch Ard in March 2016, mist forming on the Loch as the sun dips behind Ben Lomond. The award is from the prestigious Guild of Photographers, this was my very first photographic award.

Finnich Glen in Stirlingshire. Known locally as "The Devil's Pulpit" in part because of the colour of the peaty water running over the sandstone giving it a "blood" appearance.

Finnich Glen (2), local lore states it was a meeting place for the local Druids at one time.

Castle Kilchurn shot and got the mist nicely with this one.

Lone tree at Kilchurn Castle. First ever shoot at Loch Awe, early morning and on my own.. bliss!

Finnich Glen. An image I couldn't do justice to when I took this photo, my editing skills have now improved to the stage where I had another go and the judges seemed to like what I did

The Loup Of Fintry, this is the lower set of falls which was a difficult track even though a fairly short one. This was the first time I had used a variable ND filter and to have got an award with my first attempt was very pleasing

Acharn Falls in Perthshire, this image isn't really possible in the summer as the vegetation covers most of this view so happy to have gone early season.

Loch Arklet on a frosty March morning. The stillness only lasted for ten minutes but I managed to capture it and it was another award winner for me.

Finnich Glen. Really pleased to have captured the light with this ( that lasted 30 seconds max ) and to have done it justice

Fort Augustus looking down to the Kintails. I was taken with the road in this one more than the mountains.

Common Lizard taken on site at Flanders Moss NNR, Stirlingshire. An handheld image sees my first award outside of Landscape photography and into Nature Photography. This little chap was very patient with me.

Red Damselfly, taken on the same visit as the Lizard, again handheld at Flanders Moss NNR.

Four spot chaser Dragonfly, handheld again at Flanders Moss NNR in a session that has turned out to be a very good one for me.

First of two from the loup of Fintry. It had been heavily raining for a couple of days when I shot this and this was just as the clouds broke for a brief second,

The Isle of May, I was concentrating on getting a good shot demonstrating the number of birds present and I got lucky with the incoming puffin.

Loch Drunkie in the Trossachs. This area is just stunning and this particular parking area has some outstanding views, as demonstrated here.

Loch Chon, taken around 6.30am before any wind got up, the ripples you see are from my clumsy attempt to stand at the waters edge but fortunately it hasn't detracted from the image.

Loch Drunkie from further down the path, the cloud was now rolling in and around a minute later, I was standing in rain.

Isle of may puffin, just one of those "right place, right time" shots.

Finnich Glen. I loved how the light appeared momentarily with this one.

Loup of Fintry and the scene just as the clouds were beginning to break for a brief period of time.

Shot from the Campsies in early new year, this was my second award of 2018. I was lucky with the lighting conditions, strong sun and fast moving clouds

Neist point on the Isle of Skye around 9.30pm. What the image doesn't show you was the other 80 odd photographers in the area at the time.

Dawn at Elgol, Isle of Skye around 4.30am. Early start for me (though we were holidaying on Skye at the time), this long eposure was designed to show the early light.

Seals at Dunvegan Loch.

Luskentyre beach on the Isle of Harris with dramatic clouds.

The view to Loch Tarff. I saw the shape of the road here and it was around six months before I managed to go back and attempt the shot. Pretty happy with this, taken early morning.

Another Loup of Fintry shot, this time from mid august 2017. It had been raining heavily for a couple of days and a brief break in the clouds allowed the sun to highlight the extremely peaty water flowing.

First award with my new Irix Dragonfly 150mm macro lens

Stockie Muir in January 2017. This was actually taken around 1.30pm in the afternoon in a cloud inversion.

First of three shots from Glencoe that won awards

Castle Campbell at dollar Glen

Second Glencoe shot

Third Glencoe shot

Stockie Muir, again from the same cloud inversion though a little "warmer" than the other image.

Loch Drunkie, I set out to use two trees as a frame and I'm happy with the outcome of this.

Last Guild award for 2017 and this was a bit of a surprise as it was one of the first images taken when I upgraded from my D7100 to the D500 and I realised my editing techniques were going to need some refining for the D500.

Loch Lubnaig, taken on a still day

Loch Ard and a winter shot

Loch Drunkie, I liked the leading lines with this

Red Damselfly, taken at Flanders moss NNR

Another handheld image of a Red Damselfy, Flanders Moss NNR

Dawn shot from Gartmore around 4am in summer

Loch Ard and the first image where I have used a colour cast and I got an award for it

Loch Drunkie on a summers day

Four spot chaser from Flanders Moss NNR. Handheld shot, pleased with the definition and contrast with this image

One from my Finnich Glen shoot from the previous December. I remember thinking at the time, this log looked like some sort of creature emerging from the burn

Loch Ard morning mist

Red Kite from Argaty. Good lighting with this, unfortunately, blue skies always mean images can lack a little in context, which is backed up with my Puffin images.

Isle of May puffin. This was the ultimate type of shot regarding Puffins for me. The wings beat around 400 beats per minute and they reach upto 55mph.

Capturing the speed

Coming in to land

Probably the closest I physically got to a flying puffin, this was a good test for my recently acquired lens in combination with my D500, it worked better than I dared hoped.

White Tail Eagle (1). One of seven awards I got in Sept 2018 for this shoot from the Isle of Mull in August 2018

White Eagle (2)

White Tail Eagle (3)

White Tail Eagle (4)

White Tail Eagle (5), probably my favourite with the water droplets showing well

White Tail Eagle (6)

White Tail Eagle (7)

The Loup of Fintry again, something different, an experiment with a soft focus that seemed to work well enough for this award

North Third viewpoint. One of the first images I took with my Nikkor 50mm Ai-S F1.2 lens, this one was shot at F1.2 and I love the "painterly" effect this lens produces.