Photography News | Issue 55 | photographynews.co.uk
17 Outdoor Photographer of the Year
This year was the first time that the winner was kept secret until the actual award ceremony, which took place at the NEC during The Photography Show back in March. “When I was invited to the OPOTY award ceremony from Poland I felt I had a chance of winning the competition, but I was already very happy having won the Live the Adventure category. I had an appetite for more and I thought that it would be great to win the runner-up prize at the very least. My friends were betting that the overall winner would be either Jose
Fragoso with his wonderful photograph of giraffes and impalas, or me. “When I saw on screen that Jose's photograph won the second prize, I thought I had a chance but at the same time anxious of not winning. Moments later, my image appeared, and my name was announced. I couldn't believe it. I was going to the stage and laughing with happiness and relief. It was such a great feeling for the first time in my life to be an overall winner. It was a very, very joyful moment! I'm grateful to the jury for choosing my image.
“The funny thing was that I only learned about the contest when I was in Portugal and when I got home I only had one day to send images. It was a deadline day, and I barely made it! “I worked on this photograph of captain Jacek Pasikowski being flooded with waves for almost an hour, changing perspective slightly and waiting for the best moment. Although I have 11 years of experience of shooting at sea, this was the first time that I was on a small yacht. Luckily, I don't get seasickness – just sleepy.
“It was compose and wait. Sometimes there was too much water in the air, and sometimes too little. It was also very difficult to keep my camera in the position I wanted, because the yacht was jumping on the waves like a whale. But after many unsuccessful tries, I took a series of pictures and in this particular series one photo looked just as I wanted it to. When I saw it on the screen of my camera I thought, ‘Wow! Got it!’”
FollowMikolaj on Instagram, @mikolajnowacki
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