London-based photographer Cat Vinton has become the first female overall winner of the international Travel Photographer of the Year competition (TPOTY), winning a superb prize which includes the opportunity to photograph the Dalai Lama in India.

Below we have a gallery of winners and commended entries from this independently organised contest.

Amateur and professional photographers from 51 countries competed for the £50,000 of prizes, and entrants from Australia, Canada, Finland, India, Poland, Switzerland, the UK and USA are among this year's prizewinners.

TPOTY organiser Chris Coe said, "With such fantastic prizes on offer this year, we expected the standard to be high, and we weren't disappointed. We had some glorious images to choose from, but Cat Vinton's work really stood out. Black and white photography has also proved strong, with two out of the three Portfolio categories plus the One Shot category all being won by mono images. I'm delighted to see our first female overall winner, and I'm also very pleased to see amateurs featuring strongly in the top rankings, and also to see our first category winner from Poland."

Multimedia

• Gallery: TPOTY 2007 - winners

Multimedia

OVERALL WINNER

Cat's beautiful panoramic images of the snowy Norwegian landscape and evocative shots of a Nomadic family captivated the judging panel, which included the editors of Germany's fotoMAGAZIN, British Journal of Photography, Hotshoe International and Professional Photographer, the travel editor of Tatler and Photography Director of Conde Nast Traveller, and photographers Charlie Waite, Nick Meers and Jeremy Hoare.

NEW TALENT

This year, TPOTY introduced a new category - New Talent - designed to help support a fledgling career. The first New Talent award winner is American photographer, Charlie Mahoney.

YOUNG TPOTY

Cat Vinton is not the only female photographer to enjoy success in TPOTY this year. The Young TPOTY category (for photographers aged 16 and under) has been won by 14-year-old Luna Malka from Canada. Luna's imaginative images on the theme 'Fragile Earth' immediately caught the judges' eye.

ONE PLANET MANY LIVES

British photographer Timothy Allen's colourful images took the honours in this category. As a reward, he and a companion can choose between three different Intrepid Travel trips to China.

Second place in this category went to Larry Louie of Canada, with Gary Wornell of Finland Highly Commended and Jean-Claude Louis (USA) Commended.

SENSE OF PLACE

American amateur photographer Jean-Claude Louis' haunting black and white images of Berlin won first prize here. Philippe Gueissaz (Switzerland) was second, with Ashok Sinha (India) Highly Commended and Luke Duggleby (UK) Commended.

THRILL

Black and white landscape images topped what was otherwise a colour-filled Thrill category, with Polish photographer Maciej Duczynski's atmospheric portfolio depicting European mountains securing the highest marks.

ONE SHOT

The single image category had two themes this year, Special Places, and Amazing Faces, with entrants having the choice of meeting either - or both - of those briefs in their image. The winning image, taken by American photographer Richard Murai, shows a truly amazing face - an 84 year old snail gatherer in Cambodia. Tony Baker (UK) was second in this category, followed by Larry Louie (Canada), who was Highly Commended. Robert Moore (UK) and Leslie Rosenthal (USA) were both Commended.

Winning images on display

The winning images can be seen at www.tpoty.com, and will be on display at the Exposure Gallery in London in February and the TPOTY exhibition at Focus on Imaging at the NEC. The very best images from the previous four years of Travel Photographer of the Year are available in two stunning books - Journey One and Journey Two - which can be ordered from the TPOTY website.

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