Leicester College students Millie Coleman and Tegan Richardson-Smith were among the five winners of the Charnwood Arts Kevin Ryan International Photography Award 2021

BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Photography students Millie and Tegan entered the competition which was looking for outstanding examples of ‘street photography’ – an art form that relies on being in the right place at the right time, to capture a moment.

Millie entered a black and white action shot of a rider on a galloping horse. Millie was inspired to take the photo by her sister, who has a passion for horse-riding.

Millie said: “I have learnt many skills during the photography course including how to use a film camera and processing film. For this image I used a 35mm film camera and scanned the image digitally. I was then able to edit the image in Photoshop to enhance the tones in the image which I also gained knowledge about during the course.”

Millie has now completed the course and hopes to go on to seek employment as a studio photographer.

Tegan entered a black and white shot of two women clapping for carers during the first national lockdown in 2020. The lockdown limited the things Tegan could take photographs of and this opportunity was literally on her doorstep. Tegan wanted to take an image that represented the conditions and circumstances people were living in at the time.

Tegan said: “I have learnt a lot on the course about framing, composition, and depths of field using apertures – all skills that I have been able to advance throughout the course and use in my winning image.”

After completing the course, Tegan aims to work in travel photography, possible taking images for travel blogs or brochures, so that she can fulfil her passions for photography and travel.