
A PHOTOGRAPH of Queen Elizabeth, looking uncharacteristically tentative as she peeps from behind a door during her landmark visit to Ireland, was among a host of images singled out for praise at a prestigious awards ceremony last night.
The image, capturing the British monarch before the wreath-laying ceremony last May in the Garden of Remembrance, Dublin, clinched the Irish Professional Photographers Association Press and PR Photographer of the Year accolade for Chris Bellew.
The 30-year-old, who has been working for Dublin-based Fennell Photography for 10 years, said he managed to photograph the queen as she peered around a door, and looked directly at him.
The IPPA Photographer of the Year honour was awarded to Limerick-based landscape photographer Peter O'Donnell.
Mr O'Donnell scooped the coveted prize with his contemporary study of Irish landscape captured in monochrome, selected from over 2,000 entries.