Manitoulin Island photographer wins national competition

Sudbury -

Manitoulin Island photographer Peter Baumgarten was recently named winner in the epic landscape category of the Canadian Geographic 2021 Canadian Photos of the Year competition.

Baumgarten bought his first camera when he was 12. His father loved photography and encouraged him to make the purchase rather than spending his money elsewhere.

“And was instantly hooked," he said. "I was a pretty involved photographer in my teenage years and early 20s, but I really didn’t think you could make a living."

Baumgarten became a teacher and put his camera away for almost 20 years. When he retired 2014, it gave him a chance at a second career, this time in photography.

His work has been published in a number of magazines in both Canada and the United States. Most recently, he was named the winner in the epic landscape category of the Canadian Geographic 2021 Canadian Photos of the Year competition.

Alexandra Pope, acting editor-in-chief of Canadian Geographic, said Baumgarten had lots of competition.

“I personally went through all 7,000 submissions whittled them down to about 150 per category," Pope said.

"Then the editorial staff of Canadian Geographic looked at those 150 per category further whittled them down to 10 finalists per category and then those finalists were sent to our external judges.”

Baumgarten submitted an image he took in Providence Bay on Manitoulin Island. He said it didn’t happen by accident, but everything did line up to create the perfect image.

“I do a lot of planning in my photography," he said.

"It's not just spur-of-the-moment. I knew what the weather was going to be like. I didn’t know the sunset was going to be quite that spectacular, but I often will check out satellite imagery and the weather forecast well before I actually hop in the car to go shooting and I knew that it was going to be a decent sunset and so one of my favourite places to go is Providence Bay."

Pope said the competition has been going on annually at Canadian Geographic for 36 years. Winners receive $1,000 in each category, and the overall winner takes home $5,000.

“This is a great way for us to see what kind of talent is out there," she said. "(To see) if there are people who are specializing in a particular type of photography or a particular region of interest."

The photos will be published in the March/April 2022 issue of Canadian Geographic. Pope said it's possible one of the images could even make it on the cover, but that is yet to be decided.