A FAMILY reunion provided the creative spark Callan Shiel needed to be named Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) Student Photographer of the Year.
The Ferndale resident claimed the award after accumulating the highest aggregate score from his three submitted photos.
Shiel turned the lens on his own family for two of the pictures: one a striking portrait of his grandfather, the other a jarring, horror-themed shot of his sister.
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READ NOWThe Lynwood Senior High School graduate said the pictures had gone down well with his family and both subjects were happy with the results.
“My grandad was over from Queensland so I wanted to use him and wanted to do a portrait of him, and it went from there,” he said.
“The other one, I wanted to do a horror-themed one and my sister was available, so I got my mum to drag her through the hallway.
“I like either the really low key – the dark stuff – or the really high key, the two opposite ends of the scale.”
Shiel has big plans for the future, having started his own freelance photography business to run alongside his photography studies at Tafe.
The 18-year-old said it was more than a hobby and he was always on the lookout for interesting photos.
“I do a lot of street photography often, I’m always looking for compositions, either scenes people would look good or interesting in or interesting people which would make a good photograph,” he said.