Your Winner Revealed
The winner of our Photographer of the Year 2020 competition has been chosen – and it’s the first wildlife image to win!
Unveiling the results of our fiercely fought Photographer of the Year 2020 competition
OUR Photographer of the Year 2020 competition has come to a dramatic finale. After its launch in January, we received hundreds of entries online and by email, and it was a tough task for our team to choose a final 15.
Those 15 stunning shots were then put to a reader vote so that you could crown your winner.
You voted online in your thousands, and this month we’re delighted to reveal your chosen winner, Frank Urban from Cumbernauld, with his beautifully-captured image of a mandarin duck preening itself at Balloch.
Frank wins £200, a canvas print of his winning picture and an engraved trophy, and we’ll arrange a presentation of his prizes once we are able to do so.
It is the first time a wildlife image has won this competition, and Frank was delighted.
“I was totally gobsmacked!” Frank says. “When the news came in I was at a loss for words. I’ve lived a long life, but I’ve never won anything before. I was running round the house and biting my lip to keep the secret until the magazine announcement!”
Frank, who is retired, only took up photography within the last few years. An avid hillwalker, the panoramas he
“I’m donating the winnings – the title is enough for me!
witnessed while on country hikes inspired Frank to learn the craft of photography.
“It really is a case of trial and error, and experimenting with settings. I’m quite lucky in that I’m retired so I can spend time out walking and taking photographs.
Last year Frank invested in a Sony A6500 – the APS-C camera he used to take the winning image on the previous page. He used a general purpose lens and a great deal of patience to capture the perfect shot.
“It was one of my first outings with my new camera,” Frank says. “I’d heard that there were mandarin ducks on Loch Lomond at Balloch, and I went to investigate. It was typical Scottish weather – freezing and miserable, and the loch had flooded almost to the car park.
“I spotted the colourful male mandarin, and after a while watching him the skies cleared and I was able to take a few good shots. Sometimes things just work out!”
When he’s not following ducks around Balloch, Frank is away trekking with St Andrews Hospice, fundraising for the Airdrie centre of the charity which provides palliative care to people living with life-limiting illnesses.
“The hospice does yearly treks around the world which you can take part in and fundraise. I went on my first one along the Great Wall of China, which was amazing, and I raised a lot of money through my friends and family.”
It is a cause close to Frank’s heart, after a loved one was admitted to the hospice and passed away in 2003.
Frank was supposed to be on a trek in Patagonia for St Andrews Hospiace this year, too, but this unfortunately has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation.
“I’m donating the winnings from this competition to St Andrews Hospice, instead. The title is enough for me!”
The Scots Magazine Photographer of the Year competition will return in January, 2021.