I must confess that I am a bit of a foodie. And I live in the right place to indulge myself. Thailand, indeed South East Asia, is a paradise for adventurous eaters. An added bonus is that I love photographing in vibrant markets, snapping food vendors and the nosh on my plate.

Last year I entered the international “Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year ” competition, a prestigious annual event which attracts thousands of entrants, and I was selected in one category. This year, I am delighted to say that I have been selected in three categories; ‘Food in the Street’, ‘Food in Action’ and ‘Food in its Place’. There are only seven photographers selected for each category.

I must emphasize that the images shown here are not the chosen images. These have to be kept secret until the winners are announced at The Mall Galleries in London on April 23. I will be going to the show as it coincides with my annual trip back to my grey little island.

The event is attended by leading figures from photography, media and food industries. Senior representatives of the sponsors also attend including Petra Thierry from StockFood’s Photographer & Art Department. More importantly Errazuriz Wines and Taittinger provide free flow wine and fizz. Basically it is a damn good arty party and I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m travelling back from the UK today after my first visit in almost four years. I’ve been here catching up with friends, drinking the best beer in the world, and attending the ‘Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year’ exhibition as one of the finalists. The image below was selected in the final seven for the ‘Food in the Street’ category. It was taken in Yangon, Myanmar.

The opening night of the exhibition at The Mall Gallery in London was an enjoyable evening with a full house tucking into light bites by the sponsors, Pink Lady Apples and free flow Champagne by Taittinger. Henry Dimbleby, one of the co-founders of Leon Restaurants was on-hand to present the awards in ten categories.

As with any competition the winning images caused a few raised eyebrows, and I was personally surprised to see such a quintessentially European shot scoop the top prize when there were so many intriguing and exotic images in the exhibition. Hats off to the team at Pink Lady Apples for doing such a great job with the show and to One Vision Imaging who printed up the images.

The exhibition now goes on tour around the UK and you can catch it at the BBC Good Food Show NEC Birmingham 13-17 June, at the Ludlow Food Festival 7 – 9 September and the BBC Good Food Show 28 November – 2 December. You can see the finalists on the Pink Lady website. Images are also available for sale.