Canon celebrates its 8th edition of Photo Marathon in India
After enthralling photo enthusiasts in Mumbai, the photography competition moved into Delhi
BCR NEWS (Ajay Shastri/New Delhi): Fostering photography talent worldwide, Canon, leader in the digital imaging space, is back with India edition of its largest live photography competition, Canon Photo Marathon 2017. After the success of the Mumbai leg of the competition, the second segment of the Canon Photo Marathon in India took place at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Auditorium, New Delhi. The one-of-its-kind, theme based day-long photo contest witnessed photo enthusiasts put their photography skills to test in a bid to win name, fame and exciting prizes.
The Delhi edition of 8th Canon Photo Marathon in India was flagged off by Mr. Eddie Udagawa, Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information centre, Canon India, and attracted 1000 entries. The eminent jury of judges included lifestyle photographer – Ravi Dhingra, travel and people photographer – John Edwards and wildlife photographer – Shivang Mehta.
Canon Photo Marathon is an annual event and is being organized across 12 Asian regions. Deemed as one of the largest photo competitions, the event brings photography enthusiasts closer, while challenging them to push their boundaries and showcase their photographic creativity through their own perspective. The day-long photo competition offers a memorable experience and attractive prizes for various category winners. The grand winner wins Canon Photo Marathon Asia Championship which is an all-expenses paid photography tour specially organized for the grand winners of respective regions. The winners of the Photo Marathon from each region will travel to Japan to participate in the Canon Photo Marathon Asia Championship 2018.
Elaborating on the evolving photography culture in India and commenting on the event, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India, said, “We at Canon India, believe that each picture captured is a work of art that deserves to be celebrated and appreciated. Photography culture is significantly progressing in India, as we grow further, we are focused on nurturing and enhancing this culture. Canon Photo Marathon, is one of our key initiatives to spread the culture of imaging. Through this experiential medium, we focused on encouraging the photographers to explore the artists and story tellers within them and create lifetime memories with the powerful and magical medium of photography. Over the years, Photo Marathon has become a recognized platform for photography enthusiasts, who, consistently contend to win the coveted winner title and get rewarded for their exemplary skills. Just like our 20 years of remarkable journey in the country, the Canon Photo Marathon has also been receiving the appreciation of customers for several years. We are pleased to witness a strong response from photography enthusiasts in both Mumbai and Delhi this year.”
Commenting on the Canon Photo Marathon, Mr. Eddie Udagawa Vice President, Consumer Imaging and Information centre, Canon India, said, “One of the most awaited events of the year for photography enthusiasts, Canon Photo Marathon is now in its eighth year, and with each passing year, it is our endeavour to make it bigger and better. We see the number of participants grow year on year and have also seen a lot of change, since we first introduced the event in India. Mumbai was a magnificent experience for us and in Delhi too, we saw large number of participants coming in. Looking at the young talent, we have also introduced student’s category last year where students from various schools participate in this event. We are working towards bringing out extraordinary talent through this platform and give an opportunity to cultivate every participant’s interest into their passion. With this year’s success we promise to be back again next year with this brilliant initiative and our focus remains to support the extraordinary pool of immerging photographers along with refining proficiency, which leads to skill development for the future”.
Sharing winning experience at the 8th Canon Photo Marathon and expressing the delight, Archit Prajapati, said, “Canon Photo Marathon is a huge platform for all photo enthusiasts out there. The one of a kind event lets us test our skills and get out of our comfort zones. Canon Photo Marathon challenges your abilities and makes you visit the places you have never been before, looking for moments to capture the best shot. I am elated to have won this contest and I would like to thank Canon for giving me the golden opportunity to attend the Canon Photo Marathon Asia Championship 2018 in Japan.”
As part of this challenging contest, each contestant had to shoot pictures within a limited timeframe and on given themes. Canon also encouraged students to participate, under a special ‘student category’, in order to nourish their photography skills. Students from 9 schools participated in this event. Two unique themes – ‘Patterns’ and ‘Chaos’ were announced for the general category. For the student category only a single theme was given, which was ‘Love is Life’. First prize winner for the student category was Manav Ahuja, from Bluebells International School, New Delhi. Bluebells International School was also felicitated as the top school having maximum number of participants in the competition. The pictures were judged by well-known photographers based on their creative, technical and narrative sense.
Commenting on his win, Manav Ahuja, winner in the student category, said, “Canon Photo Marathon is a huge confidence booster for me. Photography is a passion for me and having eminent photographers adjudge me as winner at such a coveted platform as Canon Photo Marathon is truly a dream come true for me. Along with Canon, I would like to thank my school teachers, peers and most importantly, my family, for continuously encouraging me to attend to hone my photography skills. I am thrilled to have won this grand recognition and taking home a bunch of prizes like EOS 1300D. I look forward to taking loads of pictures with this fantastic camera and continue winning accolades.”
Every year, Canon India associates with selected brands to deliver maximum value to the participants. This year was no different with 6 partners for the Delhi leg of the Photo Marathon, including Adobe India, Make My Trip, Western Digital, JTB, Huion & OLX. Besides showcasing some of their products, these brands also offered some lucrative prizes to the winning participants.
The highlight of the event was not only the Grand prize but exquisite prizes awarded to the second and the third winners with EOS 6D Mark II and EOS 80D respectively. Additionally, there were exciting prizes for theme based winners and students category.
To inspire photo enthusiasts and offer them a hands-on experience, Canon cameras and printers were on display at the event. Living its commitment to the community, Canon had set up a free camera health check-up camp for the participants.
About Canon Group
Ever since its foundation in 1937, Canon has been adhering to the “Kyosei” philosophy and has been striving to create and deliver world-class products, becoming a top global corporation by diversifying into new business fields throughout the world. Focusing on optical technologies, Canon produces office equipment, imaging devices, industrial systems and other products. Through the close connection between its global head office in Tokyo and regional headquarters in America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and regional headquarters in Japan, Canon combines its global and local operations organically. In 1996, Canon launched its Excellent Global Corporation Plan with the goal of serving the society with advanced technologies and becoming a trustworthy and responsible corporate citizen. The year 2016 is the first year of Phase 5 of the Plan. Currently, Canon boasts a strong global presence of 317 subsidiaries all over the world, supported by 189,571 employees. (Data as of December 31, 2015)
Canon in India
Canon India Pvt. Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pvt. Ltd., is a world leader in imaging technologies. Set up in 1997, Canon markets over 200 comprehensive range of sophisticated contemporary digital imaging product and solutions in India. The company today has offices and warehouses in 14 cities across India and employs over 1000 people. Canon has over 500 primary channel partners, 14 National Retail Chain partners, and over 6000 secondary retail points. Canon has 244 own retail stores accredited as “Image Square” across 117 cities in the country. Canon India’s service reach extends to over 600 towns covering 17,564 PIN codes across India – which comprises of 300 Camera collection points, 18 Camera repair centres, 235 Printer repair centres, 185 Copier, Scanner and Large Format Printer Sales & Service dealers.
In sync with its corporate tagline- ‘Delighting You Always’, reinforced by World class technology, Canon offers an extended product portfolio, including copier MFDs, Managed Document Services, Fax-Machines, Printers, Document and Cheque Scanners, All-in-ones, Digital Cameras, DSLR’s, Cinematic Imaging Products, Camcorders, Cable ID Printers and Card printers catering to the multiple market segments of consumer, SME, B2B, Commercial, Government & PSUs. In H1 2017, the imaging leader recorded a growth of 14% over the same period last year.
