Drumheller photographer Darryl Reid is gaining international exposure after having two of his photographs receive honourable mentions at one of the world’s largest photography contests.
Two years ago Reid entered the Sony World Photography Awards and received an honourable mention for his photo called 'Carved in Sand'. This year two of his entries received the nod.
“It is pretty encouraging I must admit, and a little overwhelming,” he said.
This mention means his photos were in the top 40 of each category they were entered in. This is out of 52,000 entries in each category, according to Reid.
He entered a photo called 'Inhabited Places'. It is an image of the hoodoos, and was entered in the low light category.
“('Inhabited Places') is a dark night shot that has the hoodoo, the international space station, the far off stars and the Milky Way, and if you look you can see a far off galaxy,” said Reid.
His photo called 'Moon Ridge' was entered in the category of wildlife and nature. It was taken through a telescope of the moon rising over Duncan Lake in B.C.
“I was on one side of the lake and had my telescope set up ready to go and track the moon as it started rising. I just got three or four shots off as it did, that was just the most balanced one,” said Reid.
Reid grew up looking to the sky and building telescopes. This is what introduced him to lenses and lighting. It wasn’t until a few years ago he began to really work on the craft of photography. Since then he has had work displayed locally and provincially. He maintains a website, and has also built a home based gallery and studio.
The photos will be published in a book made for the event. An awards ceremony is being held this year in England. One day he hopes to attend the awards gala.
“It is my ultimate goal to win this thing. There are a lot of contests out there, but this is one I focus on because it is the biggest. If I can ring the bell, then I have accomplished my mission,” said Reid.
