AN ABERGAVENNY mum's pictures of baby son have won her a place in the final of a national competition.

Photographer Hannah Merrett’s two pictures of Joshua, now ten months-old, impressed the judges of the Guild of Photographers Image of the Year competition, which attracted nearly 10,000 entries.

The guild is a highly respected UK-based association for photographers, which has members from overseas as well. Each year it runs an on-line monthly photographic competition with awards being given each month to the very best of the entries.

During the course of 2015, the competition attracted nearly 10,000 entries in four categories. The Guild’s judges have selected ten images in the various genres from the very best of the monthly entries, to go forward to the annual Final.

Ms Merrett said: “Photography is my passion, and I work tirelessly developing my skills so that I can provide the best possible images for the families I work with.”

“One way I do that is to enter the Guild’s competition. It drives forward photography standards month after month so it helps me push myself. The images I see getting awards each month are inspirational, so knowing just how high those standards are, to have two of my images selected amongst only 10 to go through to the Final from the whole year’s entries is really, really exciting.”

Guild director Lesley Thirsk said: “One of the Guild’s aims is to drive standards and creativity amongst photographers. Our monthly competition certainly does that, for the standard of the entries we see each month is quite staggering.”

“To have an image recognised by the Guild in the monthly competition is difficult enough, so to have one image, let alone two, selected as being in the best 10 in a category for the end of year Final is a quite remarkable achievement, and shows just how talented a photographer Hannah is”.

The overall winner will be announced at an awards night, held in Cheshire on February 6.