If You're Having A Bad Day, These Finalists From Comedy Pet Photography Awards 2021 Are Bound To Make It Better (35 Pics)

We asked one of the founders of the contest, Tom, what the main goal of these awards is: "We have two - to raise awareness of animal welfare and shine a spotlight on those charities and organizations trying to improve the lives of unwanted and neglected animals. And to raise a smile and celebrate the importance of our pets and what they mean to us."

Here is how the awards started: "The Awards were started by Paul Joynson-Hicks and myself - Tom Sullam, having created the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (our sister competition) a few years earlier, we wanted to do something similar for pets."

Tom shares the difficulties they run into when running this contest: "Probably choosing the shortlist. There are so many great images entered that we have to be very thorough and it is so hard to pick your favorites from thousands of entries."

Here are some of the topics they cover in their contests: "We have several competition categories, including Pets who look like their owners, Juniors, Horses, Cats, Dogs, All Other Creatures, Video."

Tom shares what he thinks makes a funny pet photo: "The humor has to come first, so it has to make us laugh, sometimes it is the animal’s expression or the position the camera catches them in. It’s about snapping that perfect moment, which is much harder to do than it sounds, so we take our hats off to all our finalists."

We asked Tom what makes a good photographer: "Oooooh, now that is a tricky question! In my humble opinion, a good photographer is someone that can visualize the image before they have taken it! That may sound difficult, but given the huge amount of sensational photography that I see every day, there are many many people with this talent. A good photograph combines great timing, composition, light and it has to be in focus. If those 4 elements come together at the same time, you can be sure you have a winner!"

Here's when the competition started and how long they're planning on continuing it: "Our very first one was in 2017 but then we had a break, came back in 2020 and so this is our 2nd consecutive year. We hope to be doing them for years to come."

Tom opens up what inspires them to keep on doing these awards: "The photos and videos entered are truly heart-warming. Especially when you read the descriptions that are submitted with them and understand how the pets are part of the family for most people. Plus that we are able to give a huge donation to our Competition Charity - Animal Support Angels, this year it was £10,000 as part of our partnership with Animal Friends Insurance."

Here's some advice for you if you want to be a part of the Comedy Pet Photography Awards 2022: "Keep your camera phone handy just in case, as you never know when your pet will do something fun and take lots of pictures, have fun with them. It can be really engaging and entertaining. Get the whole family involved and if you can enter, you know that you are helping to support a brilliant cause!"

Tom tells us more about himself and his life: "I was brought up in Paris until the age of 11 when I moved to London. After university in the UK, I followed the crowd and got a job in the city of London, working in finance. An odd choice, but it took me 7 years before I realized the error of my ways and dropped it all to do photography. I have been heavily influenced by landscape photographer great Charlie Waite and learned a lot of my techniques from him. My photographic journey has been broad, encompassing working on movie sets, landscape photography, commercial and wildlife photography. But maybe I should blame my itinerant parents for making it hard for me to settle on one thing also!"