I am a finalist Again

It was only a few months ago that I visited London for the Film Photographer of the Year 2026 Finals, and I have just discovered I am now also one of 6 top prize winners in the Analogue Wonderland and Kodak Winter Competition 2026 too!

Paul of Analogue Wonderland and Andrew Church of Kodak put competitions on most years where they ask for photographers to submit their best work captured on a partiocular film stock. All the way back in 2019 I was one of two winners in the Low Light Magic Competition (the first time they run it if I recall) for a photograph I captured of the London financial district using Kodak Tri-X 400. Then last year I submitted some of my favourites from Project Vampirique to the Amateur Photographer Magazine - Film Photographer of the Year 2026, where I got to the final, and now this as well. So I am having a good year already which is nice :-)

There were over 700 entries this year, and the film that had to have been used to qualify for the competition was Kodak TMAX 400. A wonderful film, very similar in many ways to Kodak Tri-X 400, but a little bit "cleaner" and less "edgy". So it works quite well for beauty based portraiture which I do a fair amount of as part of my creative work. So I submitted one photo of Mia Moore that I captured in May 2025 actually (exactly 1 year ago!) as part of Project Vampirique. And to my delight, it has grabbed me one of the "Top 6 Slots", meaning I will hopefully get another prize of film to shoot from Kodak! In addition to the film heading my way from the AP Magazine win.

Winning, or being a finalist, in such competitions is not about "beating" other photographers at all. It's about us all jointly celebrating our creative achievements and having them critiqued by someone who knows their onions. And if you do well, then where is the harm in letting the world know?

If you want to see the video, you can do so over on YouTube here where Paul and Andrew discuss all the top listed entries. And my mention starts at 07:08 into the video.

What will I be doing with all this film? Well, go to my Instagram and you'll find out...hint : it also has a French name, and it involves black!