of singaporean, tan choon wee, wins international photography contest

Singaporean photographer Tan Choon Wee has won the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008 contest with his entry titled, Fun Bathing. 57-year-old Tan Choon Wee has been into photography for 25 years.



Tan Choon Wee describes his winning entry,

The picture was taken in Bali, Indonesia. It's a river damn on the outskirts of a small village. Local villagers go there to wash their clothes and bath, but it's particularly popular with the local kids. This place is great for photography as the morning sunlight comes from behind the dam and always shines on the lower level of the fall first. This creates a good dark waterfall background, which contrasts well with the subject. It's a favourite place for shutter bugs. I needed a steady hand and high camera ISO because I had to step into shallow but rapidly moving river water below the dam, so I couldn't use my tripod. I had to shoot at five frames per second on my Nikon D200 in order to capture the fast action of the kids playing in the water.

In fact, I only captured a handful of perfect images from the hundred or so I shot.

Tan Choon Wee's winning entry

The judges commented about the winning photo,

This wonderful shot captures the movement of the children and water skillfully. The composition and colour palette is effective, and there's an endearingly magical and joyful element that's refreshing to witness.

The competition is organised by the UK's fastest-growing photography title, Digital Camera - the magazine for today's photographer.

The competition is organised by the UK's fastest-growing photography title, Digital Camera - the magazine for today's photographer. You can find out more about the magazine here. The magazine's official website, www.digitalcameramagazine.co.uk contains a wealth of technical advice and creative ideas for better photography - and there's a dedicated Photographer of the Year 2008 forum.

Digital Camera is pleased to work with Jessops as the official partner for Photographer of the Year 2008, and welcomes Canon and Adobe as sponsors. The competition is also partnering with Sky Arts and the Royal Photographic Society this year. You can find out more about the sponsors here.

Click here to know more about the competition.

There are also others from this region that were mentioned. In the Action and Movement category, Beawiharta Bea from Indonesia came in third place and Leslie C from Hong Kong was mentioned. In the Animal catergory, Ghee Sin Kwang from Malaysia was mentioned. In the Documentary category, Gerardo Sabado from Philippines came in first and Imam Sukamto from Indonesia was third.