Retired police sergeant named as national photography competition winner - The Solihull Observer

Retired police sergeant named as national photography competition winner

Solihull Editorial 22nd Apr, 2017   0

A RETIRED police sergeant from Solihull has been named the winner of a national photography competition for a shot taken during the ‘best week of his life’.

Andrew Gregory’s image entitled Homeward Bound captured two elephants at a safari park near Cape Town, which he took the week he got engaged.

The winning shot will now be used to advertise Calumet Photographic’s forthcoming Open Days, which means it will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

As a result of winning the competition, Andrew has also been given £250 worth of Calumet Gift Cards to spend on equipment.




The 51-year-old said: “When I took the picture, I was on a huge high because I was getting ready to ask my partner to marry me.

“She, luckily, said yes making that week the best seven days of my life.


“I was over the moon to hear that I’d won the competition.

“It’s lovely that I’ll see it on all of Calumet Photographic’s promotional material for the Open Days because it brings back such beautiful memories from the trip of a lifetime.”

The winning image was taken on a second-hand camera and due to the lack of storage that Andrew had left, he had changed his camera settings so he was able to take more shots, but at a lower resolution.

He said: “Sadly the image is not particularly high-resolution, but it just shows what can be achieved with quite basic equipment.

“The images of the elephants are quite striking.

“These two beautiful beasts have been together for many years and follow each other everywhere, never leaving each other’s side.

“I found the sight of the elephants particularly moving.

“They are such amazing and graceful creatures.”

The trip to Cape Town was planned to celebrate Andrew’s retirement from the West Midlands Police after 30 years’ service.

He now wants to take up a career in photography and is working hard on his website where he will showcase his work.

The competition had a Capture More theme which meant the shot could be of anything which caught the photographer’s eye.

Members of the public were asked to vote for the favourite image across Calumet Photographic’s social media channels.

Jon Warner, Managing Director of Calumet Photographic said: “Andrew’s Homeward Bound image was completely unique and captivating.

“Elephants are wonderfully majestic and it was magnificent that Andrew managed to get so close to these beautiful animals.

“It was only once we had got in touch with him that we found out the wonderful back story of Andrew’s engagement and his recent retirement, which only makes this shot even more special.”

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