Bruce Kemp, Workshop instructor for 2012, wins national travel photography award for "The Baker and His Apprentice"

Bruce Kemp, recent winner of TMAC Photograph of the Year (people category) for his "The Baker and His Apprentice"

As writers, we are also asked (or rather expected) to be photographers and videographers in this multi-media landscape. From making ourselves more marketable to editors and publishers to just having a more professional-looking blog, we need to know the basics of great photography.

This year, I managed to book a wonderful Kelowna-area photographer AND writer, Bruce Kemp, as a workshop instructor. On Thursday, June 15, he'll run us through a food and wine photographer's bootcamp. So bring your equipment and prepare to learn a lot.

Bruce has won a number of impressive national awards for his work. Last week, he announced that a photo of his "The Baker and His Apprentice" was just awarded the Travel Media Association of Canada 2011 Photography Award (People category). See his award-winning photo here on Bruce's site.

From the press release:

For Immediate Release                                                                                                                                                                                            May 16, 2012
To: News Desks, Editors, Photo Editors and Art Directors

C2C Media and Little White Publishing are pleased to announce that our photographer, Bruce Kemp, was the recipient of this year's national travel photography award in the "People" category. His digital image depicts two historic re-enactors portraying the baker and his apprentice at the fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, NS.

In judging "The Baker and His Apprentice", legendary Toronto Star photographer said "Very moody with beautiful natural lighting. This picture almost looks like a painting. Expression of people on the picture tell us about simplicity of their life, far away from bustling city life. It was a pleasure to look at it.'

Paintings did influence the picture. "I knew I had a terrific picture from the first time I saw it through my viewfinder. The sidelight coming through a window was pure Vermeer [referring to the 17th century Dutch masters] and the subjects were as strong as anything Van Eyck portrayed."

This is the third time Kemp has been honoured with this award. He won it in 2003 and 2006. He has also been named the Caribbean Photographer of the Year and the top Travel Journalist in Ontario. He now lives in Kelowna, BC with his wife Laurie Carter and is the author of the historical novel Letters From A Fugitive's Son and co-author with Carter of the coffee-table photo book Gifts of the Okanagan.

The award was presented at this year's Travel Media Association of Canada's annual general meeting held in Fredericton, NB, May 2-6.

Bruce's photograph was one of more than three hundred pictures entered in the overall travel photograph competition. All pictures had to be published in 2011 and the award is sponsored by Tourism Saskatoon who will  host next year's Travel Media Association of Canada's annual convention.

More of Bruce's work can be seen at: www.brucekempphotography.com

Bruce can be contacted by telephone at: 250768-7399.