The winners of the second annual Dog Photography Awards have been announced, and this year the finalists include a dashing Dalmatian, an agility dog mid-flight and an adorable portrait of a sleepy Greenland Dog.
Designed to celebrate talented professional, amateur and student photographers, the Dog Photography Awards is split into four categories: Portrait & Landscape, Action, Studio, and Dogs & People. From each category a first, second and third-place winner was selected and awarded a cash prize of $500 (approximately £410 / AU$720).
In the Portrait & Landscape category, first place was awarded to Dalia Fichmann for her photo The Avalanche Rescue Dog (above). It depicts Kyron, the Border Collie who was on a training mission to find and rescue Fichmann, giving her time to set up the perfect shot.
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Second place was awarded to Sophia Hutchinson for a striking photo of her Dalmatian, Amber. It was taken on Amber’s first walk since an operation on both of her front legs, and was a very special walk for her owner. In third place is Joanne Liu for her adorable shot of a Greenland Dog curled up having a snooze in the snow.
In the Action category, Francesco Junior Mura was awarded first place for his photo She is Bagheera (below). It shows what looks like a Collie, in an almost bullet-like posture, jumping over a hurdle at the start of an agility course. Kjara Kocbek captured a game of Frisbee and came in second place while Julia Haßelkuß places third with a stunning shot of a dog jumping over a reflective lake.
Su Kaye took the top spot in the studio category for a rather unusual dog portrait titled Thing are Looking Up, Jane Thomson's Mimi's Backstory (below) came in second and Daniela Schmid came third for a photo of a palm-sized puppy.
Finally, in the Dogs & People category, an adorable shot titled Unconditional Love taken at a railway museum by Sabrina Theden came in first place. Sarah Ebner was awarded second place for a photo of two dogs playing at golden hour, and third place went to Russell Charters for his aerial photo of a beach dog walk.
I’ll never know what we did to deserve dogs – they love unconditionally and bring so much joy to life – but I am so grateful that they exist, and awards like this really highlight their unique personalities and characteristics. Head to the Dog Photography Awards website to see all the winning images.
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