Mr Nelson’s prize-winning photo of a fisherman on Inle Lake.

IMAGES of Myanmar have won major prizes in a photographic competition held by a Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star.

The newspaper holds an annual competition for amateur photographers and pictures taken in Myanmar won first and second prizes in the Places category of this year’s competition.

A photo taken during a visit to Inle Lake in January 2001 won second prize for Mr Kieron Nelson, a resident of Sarnia, Ontario.

Mr Nelson travelled to Myanmar with a group of about 16 people on a tour arranged by a Toronto company, Elder Treks.

“My reason for going was photography oriented as I had been told about the rich tapestry of culture, history and geography,” Mr Nelson said in an email to Myanmar Times.

“I enjoy taking portraits of people and with a mosaic of 67 ethnic groups I was not disappointed,” he said.

“My 17-day itinerary was designed to explore the country’s extraordinary cultural and environmental treasures.”

Mr Nelson said he was “mesmerised” by Yangon’s Shwe Dagon Pagoda and enjoyed views of the countryside and traditional riverside villages during a three-day trip on the Ayeyarwaddy River aboard the RV Pandaw.

A highlight of his tour was exploring the ancient pagodas and temples at Bagan.

Mr Nelson also visited Mt Popa, was “lulled to sleep on the serene waters of Inle Lake” and spent time with hill tribes people in the Kyaingtong region.

“I encountered a gentle, accommodating people, who went out of there way to help a foreign tourist,” he said.

Mr Nelson, who said he would return to Myanmar “in a heartbeat”, praised the group’s guides, saying they were “an encyclopaedia of knowledge and spoke impeccable English.”

It was not the first time Mr Nelson had won a prize in the competition.

He was awarded the grand prize three years ago with a photo taken during a visit to Papua New Guinea, winning a trip to the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific.

MT was unable to contact the photographer who won first prize in this year’s competition.