Skies Magazine is thrilled to announce that Toronto-based photographer Kevin Prentice has been named the Grand Prize winner of the 2024 Skies Photo Contest.
Prentice’s winning photo features an Air Canada 787 Dreamliner holding short of runway 06L at Toronto Pearson Airport in foggy CAT III conditions.
“With low visibility, I could hear the aircraft before I could see them,” said Prentice. “The bright LED beacon on the 787 illuminated the fog, creating a feeling of warmth on a chilly December evening.”
As the Grand Prize winner, Prentice has won $750, and his photo appears on the cover of the December 2024/January 2025 issue of Skies, which is now available to read online.
Prentice’s photo was one among a record-breaking 2,000 submissions from amateur and professional photographers throughout North America.
“We continue to be blown away by the quality — and quantity — of the submissions we receive for our annual photo contest,” said Mike Reyno, Skies’ publisher. “We had many unique entries this year, bringing new perspectives, angles, and ideas. It’s our favourite issue of the year to put together, and we hope our readers enjoy looking through the winning photos as much as we did.”
The 11th annual Skies Photo Contest had three main categories for entries: Commercial, General Aviation, and Military, plus our special category, the Eric Dumigan Wings of Warbirds Award. This category was introduced in 2021 in honour of the late Eric Dumigan, a renowned aviation photographer who specialized in warbird and general aviation photography, and who contributed to Skies since our debut in 2011.
The category winners were Samuel Messali (Commercial), Spencer Davis (General Aviation), Austin Kenny (Military), and Corbin Johnson (Eric Dumigan Award). The first three will receive $500 each for their winning photos, while Corbin has earned a limited-edition patch for his winning shot.
The runners up were Jan Jasinski (second place, Commercial), Simon Blakesley (third place, Commercial), Elijah Huang (second place, General Aviation), Marty Wolin (third place, General Aviation), Grant Powers (second place, Military), and Ron McCallum (third place, Military). The second-place winners have each won $250, while the third-place winners take home $125.
All the winning photos can be seen in the December ’24/January ’25 issue of Skies.
“Since we receive so many incredible photos each year, I’m proud to announce that this year we’ve included a few dozen honourable mentions within the issue to highlight the widespread talent in the aviation photography world!” said Reyno.
The Skies team would like to thank all the photographers who entered this year’s contest. And, of course, we would like to give a special thanks to our contest sponsors — Columbia Aircraft Sales and Daher — for supporting the 11th annual Skies Photo Contest.
