© Alan Leightley

Fotospeed have announced their Photographer of the Year award for this year at The Photography Show earlier this year, with Alan Leightley chosen by hand from the raft of entries to their weekly #fsprintmonday photography competitions on social media.

He submitted the winning image, an impressive shot of the Milky Way over the Duke of Portland Boathouse, Ullswater, in the Lake District, to the Twitter competition in August last year. His shot and the other shortlisted #fsprintmonday winners were displayed to the public at the Photography Show.

As overall winner of the competition, Alan will be receiving over £2,000 in prizes, including a Canon A2 printer, £500-worth of high quality Fotospeed inkjet paper, and a day of one-to-one bespoke tutoring with award-winning photographer and photojournalist Doug Chinney – including a dawn shoot and workshops on colour management, using Lightroom and printing.

Alan is presented a print of his shot at The Photography Show

Leightley, who is based in Northumberland and is a self-employed joiner by trade, drove over four hours each way to capture the image after using a photography app to work out where the Milky Way was going to appear.

Speaking of his winning shot, he said: “I often go across that way and knew of the boathouse. I use Photographers Ephemeris, and so I knew that the Milky Way was going to line up with the boathouse.

“Photography is my hobby, as I’m a self-employed joiner, so I’ve never printed any of my photos in my life. To have a decent printer to be able to do that is amazing. And to be able to spend a day alongside Doug Chinnery will be excellent – he’s such a well-respected photographer in the industry.”

Toby Herlinger, Sales and Marketing Director at Fotospeed, said “The aim of running our #fsprintmonday competition and selecting one photographer to be our Fotospeed Photographer of the Year was to encourage people to share images that they’re proud of and to support photographers in their enthusiasm for printing. Alan’s photograph really stood out to us – it really is a striking shot – and we’re very pleased to be able to give him a printer so he can create prints out of his fantastic images.”

To learn more about Fotospeed and their weekly competition, visit their website at www.fotospeed.com.