Friday the 13th. It is considered to be an unlucky day by those who are superstitious. I decided a long time ago that I will not believe in bad luck, and on the contrary, I started to believe that number 13 is a lucky number. It definitely proved to be true last Friday.

Some time ago I had great news that four of my images were shortlisted in the 2014 International Photographer of the Year competition. I also received a message that one or more of the shortlisted images were awarded a prize. I just did not know which one. The IGPOTY team kept the results secret until the day of the private view, an opening day for the annual exhibition in London's Kew Gardens. So when Martin and I went to see the exhibition, I was not ready for the big surprise. One of my pictures, Rainy Streets was awarded the 2nd place in the Greening the City category. It was beautifully printed and displayed. The exhibition will be on in Kew Gardens until 6th April, and it will tour around UK and Europe. It is a collection of beautiful images, and is definitely worth visiting.

I also had a pleasure of meeting some of the photographers behind the displayed pictures, all of which I know from social media, and whose work I have been following for quite a while, including Justin Minns, Jon Gibbs and the overall winner Magda Wasiczek. It was wonderful to meet them all in person and share their successes.

The remaining of my three images were Commended and all of them are in this year's book. I could not be happier. Especially because the winning picture is of my favourite subject - rainy reflections.