The three winners of Kokonet Solution Provider's first digital photography competition on "Seychelles" were on Monday July 14,  presented with their prizes.

The first prize, a six-month wireless connection went to Mike Bibi a resident of La Digue. Mike's picture depicts a typical Seychellois family outing, showing the crystal clear waters of the island with a man in the company of his family, holding two octopuses. Mike was however not present to collect his prize.

The second prize, an interesting scene from a domino game, was awarded to Dr Conrad Shamlaye. Dr Shamlaye won a three-month dial-up connection on the Kokonet's package of his choosing.

30 hours Internet prepaid package, the offer of the third prize went to Angelo Lawrence. Angelo submitted a picture portraying a sensational scenery of interesting rock formations surrounding a greenish coloured pond amidst lustrous vegetation.

Both the second and third prize winners are residents of Mahe.

All the prizes were presented by one of the directors of Kokonet Pty Ltd, Mr Bernard Moutia, during a short ceremony held at Kokonet's office at Pirates Arm building.

Launched last month the competition which was done over the Internet aimed at further promoting the superhighway as a communication tool among the population and encourage people to make use of digital cameras to take pictures.

The management at Kokonet has expressed great satisfaction with the number of participants and quality of pictures submitted. Altogether over 15 "photographers," both amateurs and professionals took part in the contest, submitting three pictures each. The pictures were either e-mailed to Kokonet or sent on diskets.

Mr Galen Bresson, the Sales and Marketing Manager of Kokonet said the photographers had done a remarkable job picking out brilliant sceneries all over the islands from interesting clouds pattern to spectacular rock formation, rendering it very difficult to choose the winners.

However, Mr Bresson said Kokonet was very happy that the winning picture came from La Digue, an indication that modern technology, namely Internet was picking up among the residents on the island.

The participants were free to explore any aspect of the Seychelles way of life, be it its environment, culture, special family moments among others.

Mr Bresson explained that they were inspired to organise such a contest by the "Picture of the week" slot featured on their website, which was being provided by Kokonet staff themselves.

"We are not professional photographers, but since we could take such pictures, we thought it was a good idea to encourage others to develop an interest in digital technology and picture taking," Mr Bresson told Business Nation.

He added that all the winning pictures and entries would be used in the "Picture of the week" slot.

Given its initial success, the contest will become an annual event.

Even though the competition is now over, Mr Bresson is inviting interested parties to continue sending their pictures to be used in the picture slot.

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