Fostering photography talent worldwide, Canon, is back with India edition of its largest live photography competition, Canon Photo Marathon 2017. After the success of the Mumbai leg of the competition, the second segment of the Canon Photo Marathon in India took place at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Auditorium, New Delhi. The one-of- its-kind, theme based day-long photo contest witnessed photo enthusiasts put their photography skills to test in a bid to win name, fame and exciting prizes.
The Delhi edition of 8th Canon Photo Marathon in India was flagged off by Mr. Eddie Udagawa, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information centre, Canon India, and attracted 1000 entries. The eminent jury of judges included lifestyle photographer – Ravi Dhingra, travel and people photographer – John Edwards and wildlife photographer – Shivang Mehta.
Canon Photo Marathon is an annual event and is being organized across 12 Asian regions. Deemed as one of the largest photo competitions, the event brings photography enthusiasts closer, while challenging them to push their boundaries and showcase their photographic creativity through their own perspective. The day-long photo competition offers a memorable experience and attractive prizes for various category winners. The grand winner wins Canon Photo Marathon Asia Championship which is an all-expenses paid photography tour specially organized for the grand winners of respective regions. The winners of the Photo Marathon from each region will travel to Japan to participate in the Canon Photo Marathon Asia Championship 2018.
Elaborating on the evolving photography culture in India and commenting on the event, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India, said, “We at Canon India, believe that each picture captured is a work of art that deserves to be celebrated and appreciated. Photography culture is significantly progressing in India, as we grow further, we are focused on nurturing and enhancing this culture. Canon Photo Marathon, is one of our key initiatives to spread the culture of imaging. Through this experiential medium, we focused on encouraging the photographers to explore the artists and story tellers within them and create lifetime memories with the powerful and magical medium of photography. Over the years, Photo Marathon has become a recognized platform for photography enthusiasts, who, consistently contend to win the coveted winner title and get rewarded for their exemplary skills. Just like our 20 years of remarkable journey in the country, the Canon Photo Marathon has also been receiving the appreciation of customers for several years. We are pleased to witness a strong response from photography enthusiasts in both Mumbai and Delhi this year.”
Commenting on the Canon Photo Marathon, Mr. Eddie Udagawa Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information centre, Canon India, said, “One of the most awaited events of the year for photography enthusiasts, Canon Photo Marathon is now in its eighth year, and with each passing year, it is our endeavour to make it bigger and better. We see the number of participants grow year on year and have also seen a lot of change, since we first introduced the event in India. Mumbai was a magnificent experience for us and in Delhi too, we saw large number of participants coming in. Looking at the young talent, we have also introduced student’s category last year where students from various schools participate in this event. We are working towards bringing out extraordinary talent through this platform and give an opportunity to cultivate every participant’s interest into their passion. With this year’s success we promise to be back again next year with this brilliant initiative and our focus remains to support the extraordinary pool of immerging photographers along with refining proficiency, which leads to skill development for the future”.
Sharing winning experience at the 8 th Canon Photo Marathon and expressing the delight, Archit Prajapati, said, “Canon Photo Marathon is a huge platform for all photo enthusiasts out there. The one of a kind event lets us test our skills and get out of our comfort zones. Canon Photo Marathon challenges your abilities and makes you visit the places you have never been before, looking for moments to capture the best shot. I am elated to have won this contest and I would like to thank Canon for giving me the golden opportunity to attend the Canon Photo Marathon Asia Championship 2018 in Japan.”
As part of this challenging contest, each contestant had to shoot pictures within a limited timeframe and on given themes. Canon also encouraged students to participate, under a special ‘student category’, inorder to nourish their photography skills. Students from 9 schools participated in this event. Two uniquethemes – ‘Patterns’ and ‘Chaos’ were announced for the general category. For the student category only a single theme was given, which was ‘Love is Life’. First prize winner for the student category was Manav Ahuja, from Bluebells International School, New Delhi. Bluebells International School was also felicitated as the top school having maximum number of participants in the competition. The pictures were judged by well-known photographers based on their creative, technical and narrative sense.
Commenting on his win, Manav Ahuja, winner in the student category, said, “Canon Photo Marathon is a huge confidence booster for me. Photography is a passion for me and having eminent photographers adjudge me as winner at such a coveted platform as Canon Photo Marathon is truly a dream come true for me. Along with Canon, I would like to thank my school teachers, peers and most importantly, my family, for continuously encouraging me to attend to hone my photography skills. I am thrilled to have won this grand recognition and taking home a bunch of prizes like EOS 1300D. I look forward to taking loads of pictures with this fantastic camera and continue winning accolades.”
Every year, Canon India associates with selected brands to deliver maximum value to the participants. This year was no different with 6 partners for the Delhi leg of the Photo Marathon, including Adobe India, Make My Trip, Western Digital, JTB, Huion & OLX. Besides showcasing some of their products, these brands also offered some lucrative prizes to the winning participants.
The highlight of the event was not only the Grand prize but exquisite prizes awarded to the second and the third winners with EOS 6D Mark II and EOS 80D respectively. Additionally, there were exciting prizes for theme based winners and students category.
To inspire photo enthusiasts and offer them a hands-on experience, Canon cameras and printers were on display at the event. Living its commitment to the community, Canon had set up a free camera health check-up camp for the participants.
