We are delighted to announce the winners of Amateur Photographer of the Year 2024 (APOY)! Throughout the year amateur photographers around the world were invited to submit images to APOY. The competition is made up of 10 rounds, each differing in themes from Landscapes and People to Urban Life and Macro, plus our new Open round. There are points available to win in each round, any images given a Top 10 place or shortlisted by the judges will be given points which are added up throughout the year and contribute to the overall leaderboard.
The winner of each round of APOY receives a one-year subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud ‘All Apps’ plan (worth £660) and a £500 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK, and winners of each Young APOY round receives a one-year subscription to the Adobe Photography plan (worth £120).
In addition, the overall Amateur Photographer of the Year winner receives a £1,000 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK, and Young Amateur Photographer of the Year 2024 will take home a £500 voucher also to spend at Camera Centre UK. Plus, The club with the most points after 10 rounds will win a fabulous ViewSonic X1-4K projector worth £1,500. In addition the member of the winning club who contributed the most points to their club’s points tally will win a ViewSonic ColorPro VP2786-4K monitor worth £1,000.
Here are your winners…
Amateur Photographer of the Year 2024: Lynn Fraser
Lynn Fraser is a former solicitor and until a couple of years ago also worked as an archaeologist. She now runs a fruit farm, farm shop and accommodation with her husband. Lynn first appeared in the APOY top ten in round one, and moved up and down the leaderboard over the ensuing rounds – right up until the final round, where her fifth-placed image earned her enough points to pip Sara Jazbar at the post by a mere ten points.
Lynn came fifth in round one, Black & White, second in round nine, Travel, fifth in round ten, Open, and shortlisted in all other categories. As has been demonstrated in previous years, it’s this kind of consistency that can get you to the top.
AP: How and when did you start taking pictures?
Lynn Fraser: I started taking pictures when I was given a Kodak Instamatic 100 as a child. There followed a series of point-and-shoot cameras, film and digital, until I got my first DSLR in 2011. I began to take my photography more seriously in 2014 and haven’t looked back since.
AP: What inspires you?
LF: I’m inspired by anything that makes me curious.
AP: What are your favourite subjects?
LF: I really enjoy travel photography, which encompasses all sorts, and man-made objects in the landscape.
AP: How many times have you entered APOY and what have you learned from previous years?
LF: This is the second year that I have entered APOY; I came ninth overall last year. From last year’s experience, I learned to enter images into every single category, regardless of the fact that I thought my images for some of the categories were much weaker than those for other categories.
AP: How did you go about planning your entries to this year’s competition?
LF: I can be a bit scatty so I listed all the categories and their closing dates in a notebook along with notes of the images I thought would be suitable for each category. As many of my images could have been entered into several categories, and each image can only be entered in the competition once, I also thought about where they would potentially perform best.
AP: What did you feel were your stronger categories? And which were less strong?
LF: I felt that the people and travel categories were my strongest categories, and the macro and urban life less so. However, my results didn’t necessarily reflect those thoughts, which shows you can’t second-guess anything. But you only need one image to be shortlisted to earn points!
AP: What was your reaction when you learned that you had won?
LF: My first reaction was surprise, closely followed by delight.
AP: What advice would you give to anyone who is planning to enter APOY?
LF: I would encourage everyone to give it a go. It’s a great exercise in curating your images. I would advise entering as many images as possible in all the categories because that gives the best chance of accumulating points. Don’t enter what you think a judge will like, enter what you think fits the brief. And once your entries are in, forget about it!
AP: What are you hoping to spend your prize voucher on?
LF: I bought a Canon EOS R5 last year but, so far, haven’t been able to get any of the R lenses – so the voucher will most likely go towards a new lens.
AP: What are your plans for your photography over the coming year?
LF: In the short-term, I have a photo trip planned to Bangladesh and India in March. More generally, I would like to get out and about more often in my local landscape. Being based in the Highlands of Scotland I’m spoiled for choice for easily accessible, beautiful locations. Over the course of the year, I will be spending time in the Highland Print Studio in Inverness making some polymer photogravure prints with a view to collating them into a handmade book. I will also be participating in two exhibitions, one in London and one in Inverness. It’s going to be a busy year and winning APOY is the best start possible.
Young Amateur Photographer of the Year: Lucy Monckton
Lucy first came to our attention as the winner of Young APOY in 2021 – when she shared the prize with Muhammad Amdad of Bangladesh. Three years on, and she has come back to win it outright, with a 90-point lead over Yousef Naser (another previous winner). She won the Animal Kingdom, Landscapes, Macro and Travel rounds, and was placed in the top ten of three further rounds.
Camera Club winner: Plymouth Camera Club
For the past three years, Launceston Camera Club has run away with the Camera Clubs title in APOY, but this year there’s a new kid on the block – Plymouth Camera Club. They went all out, with no fewer than 17 members regularly entering images. Overall, they accumulated an impressive 620 points – 245 ahead of their nearest rival, Truro Camera Club.
Many thanks to every photographer that entered and to our sponsors Camera Centre UK, Adobe and Viewsonic.
We look forward to sharing news of the Amateur Photographer of the Year 2025 competition soon.
