IT’S TIME to get focused. It is just four weeks before the closing date for The Times/ Tabasco® Young Photographer of the Year competition. The prize? A job on The Times.

This is the most prestigious award of its kind in national newspapers, with the opportunity to work alongside the finest photographers in the country and learn from working for a demanding picture desk.

Two young photographers have already benefited from the award. One is Leon Neal, from Sheffield College, who has just finished his stint at the paper — picking up six months on full pay in the process — and has now won himself regular work on the paper as the reward for his hard work and talent. The other, Katharine Batchelor, graduated from here to a job on a top provincial newspaper.

Leon has seen improvements in his own work. He says: “I have been looking at the subjects of the pictures more carefully, thinking about what I was doing, imagining what it should be like to appear in the paper.”

He has already had the priceless reward of seeing one of his photographs grace the front page of The Times with his picture of Meg Ryan who was at The Times/bfi gala opening of her movie In The Cut at the London Film Festival.

What do you need to win this important prize? Ability, of course. Above all, a passion for photography, lots of imagination and unlimited determination.

Entrants must present a portfolio of pictures in three categories: an action picture, an illustration of food and entertainment and portraiture.

The winner and runners-up also win an Olympus camera and accessories worth a total of £5,000.

The closing date is Tuesday, February 24.

To find out how to enter visit
www.timesonline.co.uk/youngphotographer