Member Article

County Durham photographer crowned international Guild’s ‘Pet Photographer’ of the Year

County Durham photographer, Jason Allison was last night crowned ‘Pet Photographer of the Year’ at the annual Guild of (Professional) Photographers Image of the Year competition.

And, it was quadruple success for the 47-year-old from Crook after being awarded overall winner and runner-up in the ‘Pet’ category, runner-up in the Open Category and third overall Photographer of the Year of the fiercely contested competition.

It was Jason’s portraiture of Rab - the one-year-old phantom coloured Cockapoo that caught the eye of judges as the winning image, which has now catapulted him onto the international scene.

The Guild is a highly respected UK-based association for photographers, which also includes members from overseas. Each year, it runs an on-line monthly photographic competition, judged by internationally respected judges with awards given to the best entries. During 2018, the competition attracted 12,000 entries from the most talented of photographers.

In December, judges from the Guild selected ten images in each of the 15 genre categories and qualifying images needed to achieve a Silver award status or above in their popular image of the month category.

Jason who shoots from his studio at the Barton Townley Building in Willington, set his business up in 2017 and people are willing to travel from all over the North East and beyond for a portrait experience of their pets.

The awards cap off a very successful year for the married father-of-three who was awarded seven Gold, 12 Silver and ten Bronze awards. The judges shortlisted seven (out of ten) of his images in the final of the Pet category which included six dogs and one cat.

Jason was presented with his awards at the final, which was held at Crewe Hall in Cheshire last night (Saturday 2 February). Commenting on his success, Jason said: “Words cannot describe how I feel, it’s awesome. Setting up my own photography business and studio has always been a dream of mine and to achieve the success I have within the space of a year and half is unbelievable.

“I just love doing what I do. Every day is different and I enjoy working with my clients and their humans and it takes a lot of patience and experience to get the shot I want that captures the image and true character of the pet.

“This year, I have won 29 Guild awards and I am very grateful to the judges for recognising my talent. Pet photography is very niche and unique and to be crowned overall national winner is something that all photographers aspire to – I am very grateful.”

Commenting on his success, Rab’s owner Trish Willis from Howden-le-Wear in County Durham, said: “I smile every time I see the portrait. From beginning to end I felt confident in Jason’s skill to produce an outstanding image of my pup. This is award is well deserved.”

Jason’s photo of ‘Half Sisters’ Martha and Maggie, the two Dachshunds, was awarded runner up.

Guild Director Lesley Thirsk, said: “I am both proud and delighted that Jason has achieved this recognition with their striking image. The Guild has very demanding standards when judging photographic competitions. The judging is undertaken by a panel of internationally recognised experts from a variety of photographic backgrounds, so Jason quite rightly should be delighted with their extraordinary achievement.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Up North Communications .