WEX PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

ALL PICTURES © ANDREW CAMPBELL

T

he Photographer of

the Year competition

organised by Wex Photo

and Video via social

media is one of the most interesting

and challenging contests of the

photographic year. To succeed you

need to post images very regularly

on social media, so it’s not for the

lazy or faint-hearted. The Wex

Photographer of the Year 2020 is

Andi Campbell from Devon, who

specialises in beautifully composed

landscapes (and seascapes)

featuring the Milky Way. We caught

up with Andi to get the full story.

We are all made of stars

‘Astrophotography has always been

an interest, but I noticed I was

developing a specific style, whereby

the stars were secondary to other

aspects of the image – particularly

the foreground,’ Andi explained

when we met him at the Wex Photo

Video flagship store in London.

‘That is why my most successful

images feature the Milky Way

behind St Michael’s Mount, boats in

the harbour, or other elements.

When people look at my pictures

they are surprised to see a “normal”

landscape subject with the Milky

Way behind it.’

A key influence on Andi was the

noted astrophotographer Alyn

Wallace, but Andi is much more

than a tribute act. ‘While he would

capture the whole of the Milky Way

or a nebula, I wanted to capture

stars working with other elements

in the frame.’

Andi is adamant that it’s really

important in this kind of

photography to understand where

the Milky Way is going to be and to

work out the weather – in other

words, to do a lot of planning in

advance. ‘Understanding the rule of

500 is crucial, so the stars are not

overly blurred or moving in the

image,’ he explains. ‘Put simply, you

take the focal length of your lens and

divide 500 by that number. This

milky

Andi Campbell, recently named Wex

Photographer of the Year, talks to

Geoff Harris about his unique and

dramatic landscapes-cum-starscapes

star kid

gives you the maximum amount of

seconds you can keep your shutter

open when capturing the shot. This

has interesting implications for me,

as I tend to shoot with less

wideangle lenses, with 24mm and

50mm being my normal lens length.

This is quite uncommon in

astrophotography, as most people

are shooting as wide as they can.’

Space Pirates

For ‘Space Pirates’, one of Andi’s

most popular images (above), he

The

Left: ‘Day/Night

Marker’, Devon

Sony Alpha 7R,

14mm lens, 20sec

at f/2.8, ISO 2500