An underwater photograph titled ‘Cowboy Waterboy' has taken out both the Supreme Award and the Land and Sea category of the inaugural Trustpower Photographic Exhibition.

Captured by Graham Flanagan, the amateur photographer is one of 20 category and special award winners who've been celebrated at a special ceremony held on The Strand in Tauranga tonight.

For winning the Supreme Award, Graham walked away with the House of Travel Tauranga and Downtown Tauranga Travel Photography prize of return flights and five night's accommodation to New York, London, Paris or Rome up to the value of $3000.

While his prize for winning the Land & Sea category includes $1000 cash, plus his photo ‘Cowboy Waterboy' will appear in The Weekend Sun and UNO Magazine, as well as in in the Trustpower Photographic Exhibition which is on display to the public down on The Strand until April 9.

The two other big winners are Katie Cox who's photo ‘An Octopus' won the Emotion category, while Brydie Thompson's images ‘Lest We Forget' and ‘Friendship' won the Heritage and Our People categories respectively.

Emotion category winner Katie Cox's ‘An Octopus'. Photo: Katie Cox.

Heritage category winner Brydie Thompson's ‘Lest We Forget'. Photo: Brydie Thompson

Our People category winner Brydie Thompson's ‘Friendship'. Photo: Brydie Thompson

This week a panel of 10 judges were given the epic task of scrutinising more than 1740 photographs entered into the competition which invited amateur and professional photographers to submit photos showcasing the Western Bay.

In total, 20 winning photographs were unveiled tonight – first and second place winners in each category, excellence and merit awards for best young and student photographers, eight highly commended awards, plus the overall supreme winner.

On Saturday the 20 winning photographs, which have been enlarged to into 1.2m high x 1.8m wide prints, will go on display in an outdoor exhibition on The Strand that runs until April 9.

Judging the Trustpower Photographic Exhibition was TrustPower's Carolyn Schofield, The Weekend Sun's Claire Rogers, MediaWorks' Belinda Francis, Tauranga Photographic Society's Paul Byrne, BOP Film's Anton Steel, Tuskany Agency's Tara Fowler, UNO. Magazine's Jenny Rudd, Tauranga Art Gallery's Karl Chitham, Tourism BOP's Kristin Dunn, and Tauranga City councillor Larry Baldock.

TrustPower's ‘Our Place To Shine' Photographic Exhibition will be on display on The Strand from Saturday, January 28, until Saturday, April 29. For more information, visit: www.downtowntauranga.co.nz