Picture perfect

A TALENTED snapper, who only picked up a camera three years ago, has won the Bahrain section of a competition run by photographic giant Canon.

Gienel Balanquit is a 32-year-old advertising art director who came to Bahrain from the Philipines two-and-a-half years ago.

He has been involved in advertising for 10 years but around three years ago he decided it was time to get behind the camera and try his hand at photography.

He said: "Ever since I picked up my first camera I have been shooting everything I see."

He heard about the 'Celebrating Cultures - How Do You See Your World' competition, which Canon Middle East opened to 13 countries across the region, through a fellow member of Gulf Photographers at Work, an organisation of Filipino photographers in Bahrain, and decided to enter it for the 'fun of it'.

He did not expect to win having previously only attended competitions to take pictures of the winners.

He said: "When Canon contacted me to ask for a high resolution image of my entry, I was very excited. To find out I had won was fantastic."

Gienel's winning photograph show's a Bahraini child holding a boat up to the sun or moon. It is an image he prepared around a year ago for a commercial campaign, while working for advertising company Hawiya he it produced by taking two images and joining them together on a computer.

He said: "I was asked to come up with an image of an inspirational child. I combined the two images of the sun or moon and the child raising the boat to show that he is giving us something.

"When I realised the theme for the competition was celebrating cultures I thought the child and the boat, which is like a symbol of Bahrain, would be a good picture to enter. I'm pleased the judges liked it."

Hendrik Verbruggne, marketing manager of Canon Middle East, said: "We were impressed with the overall high standard of photography across the region, especially Bahrain, and were amazed at the depth of talent that exists."

Winners across the 13 countries will each receive a state-of-the-art DSLR Canon EOS 1000D camera and their pictures were displayed at the Gulf Photo Plus 2009 event in Dubai.

But generous Gienel said: "To be honest, I'm very pleased to win but already have my own camera so I am going to give the prize to my fiancŽe Princess as she loves taking pictures too and now we'll have a camera each."