24 14 March 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
APOY
2ndplace
Tom Franklin
de Waart
AirlinepilotTomis in
theenviablepositionof
beingabletocombine
travelandwork– and
theimageshetakes
duringhistimeoffin
variouscountries
aroundtheworldensuredheremained
closetothetopof theleaderboard
throughoutour 2019 competition.
Heregularlyhadmorethanone
imageplacedin eachtop30,reflecting
thesensitivityandconsistencyof his
work.Histalentliesin distillinga scene
downtoonlyitsessentialelements,
withlittleornoextraneousdetailto
distracttheeye.Visitwww.tomfranklinphoto.com
Why do you have such a
keen interest in wildlife?
I have a degree in Zoology from
Oxford University – I wanted to be
the next David Attenborough. I did
have an interview with the BBC, but
couldn’t aff ord to live in London on
the salary they were off ering. I was
then off ered three times as much to
work in banking, and from there, I
moved into advertising. I’m afraid
I chased the money! I now run my
own business – a multi-use venue
that hosts conferences and
weddings – which means I can
spend time doing the things I really
enjoy. It’s been great to get back to
nature and my zoology roots.Why did you decide to enter
A POY?
I became aware of it through
entering Bird Photographer of the
Year on Photocrowd. Seeing APOY’s
varied categories, I knew it would
be a good challenge for me. I like to
set myself targets, otherwise I can
get lazy – I’m defi nitely a goal-
orientated person. And having a
competition that covers so many
diff erent genres gave me a reason to
try things that were outside of my
comfort zone. I didn’t think I’d
necessarily stand much of a chance,
but I had some photographs I knew
I could work on for the fi rst couple
of rounds – and for the rest of
them, I just thought I’d have a go.
My family will tell you I was a
complete pain over it.For instance, I hadn’t done any
macro photography before the
competition. I would run around
the garden, trying to photograph
insects, and also brought bugs
into the house and tried
homemade lighting rigs. Although
I wasn’t placed high in that
category, I managed to get a shot
of a beautiful hawk moth that
landed on the bathroom window.
I took it and placed it on a log,
expecting it to fl y away, but it
stayed there for about ten
minutes while I faff ed about
trying to get the fl ash on my
camera. There’s still plenty of
room for improvement.As for portraits, typically, I got
some nicer ones after the deadline,
and I didn’t enter Street Life and
hadn’t done anything like that before.
The photograph that won the After
Dark category was taken in Mongolia
(see page 23). I knew the skies there
would be good for the Milky Way. I’d
tried some astrophotography in the
UK, but hadn’t managed to get
anything suitable. I kept asking our
guide in Mongolia about
astrophotography, and there was so
much I didn’t understand about it –
such as software that allows you to
blend images and get rid of a lot of the
noise. The fi nal image was several
photographs blended together.Above: A fallow
deer takes in its
surroundings
Canon EOS-1D X Mark II,
400mm, 1/250sec at f/5.6,
ISO 1000© TOM FRANKLIN DE WA ART © MARCO TAGLIARINO