A 23-year-old photographer from the Cowichan Valley has made the shortlist for travel photo of the year in a prestigious competition held by tech giant Sony.
Rob Wilson’s awe-inspiring snap of Taft Point in California’s Yosemite National Park caught the eye of a panel of judges for Sony’s World Photography Awards, and he’s made the final cut of 10 in the open competition – travel category.
Wilson, who lives near Cobble Hill, said the photo came about on a trip down to Panama with his girlfriend.
“Along the way, we talked to a couple of other travellers who mentioned Taft Point, and they said ‘you have to go up there for sunset,’ so we went up there and it definitely was incredible,” said Wilson.
When they got there, Wilson had his girlfriend stand on the point’s 300-metre-high cliff as the sun set on the Yosemite Valley, and started snapping pictures.
“It wasn’t super intentional,” he said. “We were up there for a few hours. It was just kind of when I was going through them after that I noticed the light leaving the valley and thought, this is the one.”
Wilson was aware of the Sony contest from the year before, and entered two of his photos into the 2017 competition.
Last month, he found out that his Taft Point photo had been shortlisted for the travel category.
If he wins his category, he’ll win a wealth of Sony digital imaging equipment as well as publication in the winners book, and a spot in an exhibition at Somerset House in London.
But if Wilson’s photo goes on to win the entire open competition, he could wind up with $5,000 USD, the equipment, and a paid trip to attend the London exhibition.
“There’s definitely some good ones in there, it’s gonna be really tough to judge,” he said.
Whether or not he wins, Wilson, who has studied journalism in school, said the experience has inspired him to continue working in photography as a professional.
“I hope to be a professional photographer as my career…I would like to do commercial photography,” he said. “Has it validated me? Yeah, I think so. I was really excited and proud.”
Sony says more than 227,000 images were entered from 183 countries for this year's competition. Open category winners will be announced on March 28.
Click here to see more of Wilson's work, or visit the competition website to see all shortlisted photos.
