Wedding photographer Jenny Wilkinson from Creative Image www.creative-image.net, based in Cobham, Surrey, has won two prestigious Awards from the Guild of Photographers. She not only won her own category – Wedding Photographer of the Year, but also the overall Award – Photographer of the Year.

To win these top accolades, she submitted three images every month for 12 months which were judged by a panel of master photographers. Jenny says “I am thrilled to have won these two Awards. It is definitely the highlight of my career.”

Each image is awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze, commended or ungraded and given points. During the year, Jenny’s images accrued the maximum number of points.

Jenny, a former catwalk model and sales manager, has been a wedding photographer for the past 14 years. She says “I’m famous for capturing the emotion at a wedding and prefer to direct people rather than ‘pose’ them which results in more natural looking photographs. I have photographed over 400 weddings – almost all religions and from all walks of life – from village halls to castles, Mormons to Buddhists!”

When she first started only 10% of wedding photographers were female, says Jenny “but I find most brides prefer that.”

Jenny also does portraiture, event photographs, pregnancy photography, new born babies and families.

Married for 11 years with a six year old son, Jenny was spotted by a modelling agency at the age of 18 when she appeared in a charity fashion show “so I know what life is like on the other side of the camera,” she says.

She worked as a model for about three years, then decided to set up her own modelling agency. After this, she worked for a data analysis company and in advertising as a sales manager.

“My passion has always been photography,” she says. “Every weekend I would go out with my camera taking pictures.”

She moved into wedding photography by accident. “I noticed that most wedding pictures were very staged with no emotion in them. I attended a friend’s wedding and as a gift, I gave them an album of photos showing my interpretation of their day – very natural and full of wonderful moments. Someone saw those pictures and said they would pay me to cover their wedding. That was the start and I haven’t looked back since!”

After two years, she gave up her full-time job. “I decided to give up work and filled my diary. The style of wedding photography had changed - a new relaxed style was emerging – people wanted it and I could do it.

“I believe you must follow your dream. I was prepared to sacrifice a big salary for a creative fulfilling life – you can’t beat it for the adrenalin rush, fun and the small part I play in making history!”

www.creative-image.net Based on information supplied by .