The winners of the 2024 Epson International Pano Awards have been announced, and the photographs are as stunning as they are wide.
Often attributed to landscape photography, but not exclusive to it, panoramas capture a wider aspect ratio than the norm, producing an immersive image that draws the viewer in. This year, the Epson Pano Awards showcases the skills needed to capture panoramas and the beauty of nature.
In addition to producing some of the best photo printers on the market, Epson has been championing Panormas by sponsoring the awards for the last 15 years. This year saw 4,529 entries from 1,105 professional and amateur photographers across 95 countries.
The overall winner of the 2024 Open Photographer of the Year is Kelvin Yuen from Hong Kong for his commanding entries Power of Nature, Wilderness, and Mountain of Divinity, which also won Yuen the Nature/Landscape category.
Yuen is an international landscape photographer based in Hong Kong who found his passion for capturing the natural world aged 18 while on a hike through the mountains.
Talking about the first of his winning images – Power of Nature, Yuen says, "The primary goal of this trip was to capture the iconic mountains of Guilin, renowned for its karst formations. On the day I took this photo, I woke up at 3 am and was supposed to hike up for the sunrise. However, a heavy thunderstorm struck out of nowhere, so I decided to shoot the thunderstorm. I flew my drone to wait for the lightning due to safety concerns. The drone surprised me by being functional after 30 minutes of downpour. I took 700 photos with the same compositions, of which more than 40 were lightning shots".
Yuen's other images are just as impressive and capture the beauty of his homeland. His image Wilderness was created by stitching a whopping 44 shots together! (4 rows of 11 images).
The Epson Pano Awards states that the most notable figure collected by looking at the entry data was a 70% increase in entries from Southeast Asia, comprising Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
To coincide with the new interest from the region, the Pano Awards announced Epson Southeast Asia as a joint sponsor alongside long-term supporter Epson Australia and created a new award – The Pano Awards Southeast Asia Open Photographer of the Year.
The winner of this inaugural award is Fikri Muharom of Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, for their image titled – The Volcanoes Theatre.
The 2024 Epson International Pano Awards have a long list of fantastic category and prize winners who can be found on the awards website along with their incredibly varied winning images.
You may be interested in our guides to the best camera for landscape, the best wide-angle lenses, and the best tripod for photography.
