Today’s post comes from one of the true rising stars of British photography Richard P Walton. Not only did Richard achieve a merit award in all six of his entires into the Society of Wedding and Portraits’ (SWPP) 16×20 competition at this years’ convention but he was also was awarded the overall portrait winner.

Firstly I would like to thank Michael for featuring me here and doing a great job on running this site, I would also like to thank everybody who
came to my seminars and everybody who has bombarded my Facebook with such kind words in the last few days. I feel absolutely honored to win such a great competition. The SWPP convention was a great week and winning the award topped it all off for me.

The winning image

The image above that achieved overall portrait winner in the international 20×16 print competition at the SWPP convention last week was taken around
two months ago at an old derelict lunatic asylum somewhere deep in a Welsh valley. I felt the mask would suit the location great and thought that the pose would leave the viewer feeling a bit spooked out, when I saw the hatch in the kitchen that looked out to what was once a dinning room I knew it was
the final piece in the puzzle that would bring the image together. I shot the photo with a Canon 5D, cheap Tamron lens, pockets wizards and a Canon 430EZ which was positioned to his right in the room he is stood in. I balanced the flash the best I could with the natural light in room to keep the original feel going, I added the blue tone in camera with a custom white balance setting. I shot it at 800 iso, 1/30th, f3.5 and intended the motion blue as I thought It added a bit of realism to the final image.

I was also very fortunate with my other entries in the competition and received a merit award for all six that I entered (only the 5 below scored
over 85), they were all shot in a similar way apart from the breakdancer with involved a much heavier lighting set up.

[View with PicLens]

Thanks for your interest into my images and thanks again to everyone who has supported me, I loved presenting some seminars at the convention and look forward to more to come in the future.

Love Life – Richard P Walton

richardpwalton.co.uk

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