Four Maltese photographers won no fewer than eight major awards in the annual competition by The Societies, which attracted 24,000 entries.

Christopher Azzopardi scooped up no fewer than four awards.

The first three were won in the environmental portraiture, fine art and publicity and PR categories. He also received a special award for having obtained the highest number of gold merits during the monthly competitions in 2009: a stunning 69 awards.

Last year, the highest number of gold awards went to Joe P Smith with 37, followed closely by the president of the Malta Institute of Professional Photography, Kevin Casha with 36.

Mr Smith was declared Photographer of the Year in the architectural (exterior) category. He also won the traditional portrait category in the 20x16 print competition.

Alan Carville was Photographer of the Year in the architectural (interior) category and Martin Scerri won the Photographer of the Year award in the sport (ball sport) category.

A delegation of seven Maltese photographers travelled to the UK where they were invited to deliver master classes and super classes during the week-long convention of The Societies, formerly the Society for Wedding and Portrait Photographers.

It was not the first time that MIPP members have been invited to the event and the majority of those speaking at the 2010 convention had already done so on previous occasions.

The delegation was led by Mr Casha and included Mr Smith, Mr Carville, Ruben Buhagiar, Paul Mizzi, Charles Zammit and Ramon Sammut.

Mr Azzopardi and Mr Scerri attend master classes at the convention.

Mr Smith was invited to mount his recent successful exhibition Survivors - The Ageing Population Of Vittoriosa in the foyer of the Novotel, in Hammersmith.