After spending years in the shadows, British photographers have dominated this year?s Travel Photographer of the Year competition by taking four out of the six awards, including the much-coveted overall winner title.

That honour went to professional London based photographer Julian Love, whose crisp images of London, Nepal, Egypt and Namibia won over the panel of judges, securing him the title of Travel Photographer of the Year, 2006. His prize includes a 14-day adventure for two people to Mozambique and South Africa with G.A.P Adventures, a Hewlett Packard Designjet 90gp printer and Adobe CS2 Premium Collection software.

Photographers from the UK were also successful in the Single Image – Festival, Street life and Iconic categories, while the Wild category was won for the first time by a South American photographer. Young Travel Photographer of the Year, on the other hand, was won by a non-British youngster for the first time with the title going to a German schoolboy.

Although standards were deemed to be high across the contest, for the first time judges decided that one category ? North of 30 Degrees ? didn’t reach the standard expected and so no overall winner was awarded. However, young photographer entries impressed so much that that the judging panel took the unusual step of awarding additional commendations to two other entrants in Young TPOTY.

?We had another huge and fascinating selection of entries this year? said organiser Chris Coe. ?Black and white portfolios won two of the categories, while panoramic images came top in two others, with European destinations, London, Rome and Paris, amongst the ?star? locations featuring in winning portfolios.

The winning and other highly placed images from TPOTY 2006, along with those from the 2005 competition, are showcased in Journey Two, the second portfolio book from TPOTY. The winning images will also go on display at the Daily Telegraph Adventure Travel and Sports Show at London?s Olympia from January 12-14, 2007. Visit www.tpoty.com for more info.

Picture: An image from Julian Love’s winning portfolio

Read more news stories about TPOTY by clicking here

Join the debate in our news message board