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Professional and amateur photographers around the world were invited to enter The EPSON International Photographic Pano Awards to compete for over $13,000 in cash and prizes.

The inaugural 2010 EPSON International Pano Awards is dedicated to the art of panoramic photography. Advances in digital photography and software such as PTGui and Adobe Photoshop has resulted in an explosion in the popularity of image stitching, especially in the panoramic format. Panoramic film photography also remains alive and well.

The inaugural competition was very well supported with 2,740 entries from 945 photographers in 79 countries. The overall winner was Bill Leigh Brewer of California, who also placed first in The Built Environment category of the Open competition.

The winner of the Amateur competition was Cynthia Hedgecock, of San Diego, California, who also placed first in the Nature category. Her image Storm Wave at Sunset was taken with a Canon digital SLR in Kaua’i, Hawaii, on the NaPali Coast – a wild and volcanically formed coastline of cliffs and rainforest, approachable by sea or helicopter, or in part by hiking trails. The wave was formed at high tide, when huge storm waves were pounding the cliffs then surging back out to meet the oncoming waves. This one exploded into the fan formation, with backlighting from the sunset through the blue-green water.