Ugandans are capable of doing a lot of things. And doing them well:

A general perusal through the newspapers shows pictures of handshakes, group pictures and 'say cheese' images.

So, the people who turned up for the inaugural Uganda Press Photo awards held at Makerere Art gallery last Thursday were amazed by the stunning images the winners exhibited. The awards are aimed at recognizing and awarding the talent of these photojournalists.

Daniel Edyegu's photo taken in the aftermath of the landslides in Bududa district enabled him to win first place, walking away with a new Nikon D7000 DSLR camera. Edyegu, a freelance photojournalist currently in South Africa, also won the second prize - a scholarship to study a BA Media, Communication and Journalism at Victoria University, one of the competition's sponsors.

Most of the slots were taken by photojournalists working in the dailies while freelancers and passionate amateur photographers won in some categories like Daily Life and Portraits.

The awards were organized by Foreign Correspondents' Association of Uganda (FCAU), and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). The Foreign Correspondents' Association of Uganda (FCAU) is an organisation of journalists working in Uganda for foreign and international news media.

Tangerine, def.i.ni.tion by US Mission in Uganda, Solar Sister and Makerere University were the other sponsors. The competition attracted hundreds of images submitted from more than 80 photojournalists from all over Uganda.

Malcom Webb, the chair of FCAU, said: "We are delighted with how well the awards turned out. There was tremendous enthusiasm from the photojournalists and there is an array of interesting and powerful photographs at the winners' exhibition."

The exhibition of winners' images is free and open to the public at Makerere Art gallery, Kampala from November 9 - 28.