Market Drayton photographer captures hearts with award-winning rescue dog portrait

Carole-Ann Chambers, owner of Chambers Photographic, won the Pets category at the London Camera Exchange Photographer of the Year 2026 competition. The prestigious awards, which attracted 14,500 entries across 14 categories with just three finalists per category, were announced live at The Photography Show at the NEC, Birmingham, on Sunday, March 16.

Her winning image, Silent Sentinel, is a fine art woodland portrait of Lola, a saluki who came from a traumatic beginning before being rescued. The image captures Lola standing on a tree stump in dappled forest light, combining technical precision with a quiet, timeless quality that caught the attention of the competition's four expert judges.

"Winning this award means more to me than I can easily put into words. I sometimes struggle to believe my work is good enough, so to have it recognised at this level by professional judges is genuinely overwhelming. Lola is a very special dog and I hope this image does justice to her story."

Chambers Photographic is a fine art pet photography business serving Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, specialising in museum-quality wall art portraits of beloved pets, designed to be treasured and displayed for generations.

Lola is also the inspiration behind Carole-Ann's ongoing fine art project, Beautifully Mended, which photographs rescue and survivor dogs and celebrates their stories through the philosophy of kintsugi - the Japanese art of repairing broken things with gold to honour rather than hide their history.

"The kintsugi tradition says that the broken places are where the gold goes in. That is exactly what Beautifully Mended is about. Lola embodies that completely."

Silent Sentinel is also featured in the official LCE Photographer of the Year 2026 print book, presented to Carole-Ann at the awards ceremony.