Well what a month August turned out to be! As well as some wonderful weddings I had notification yesterday from The Guild of Photographers that I have won three awards for the August entries.
On the hottest day of the year – you remember the one; that Saturday in mid-August when we all just wanted to be inside a fridge for the day – Rhian and I were at the Bath Spa Hotel with Tiffany and Michael for their big day.
We found the coolest spot for these two images in the gardens. That said it was the hottest part of the day! A huge thank you to these two for trusting in the process and trusting in me to turn the 15 minutes we had into the most magical of memories, and now award winning images!
The third and final winning image for August was taken just before Tiffany made her way downstairs to Michael and their assembled guests.
Everyone was unceremoniously booted out of the bridal suite so that we could take this gorgeous image. Just one of a stunning series of images of Tiffany.
I love to take these images with my brides as it creates a breathing space for them. A moment of calm in a whirlwind of activity.
Time and space are so important for these beautiful images. Time and time again over the years I was seeing brides lost in the centre of a whirlwind of activity. Overcome by the questions they are being asked. Just needing a few minutes of quiet time and a little bit of space in amongst the hurricane of activity of the day.
And that’s why I do this.
The awards I enter are not won based on the number of votes I receive. I’m known for not being a social media slave as I’d prefer to spend my time with my Clients and creating really cool images! And that’s why I don’t enter numbers based awards. To my mind they are great if you have a big social media following. But for me I want feedback from gurus in my industry.
Photographers of huge reputation and skill judge the work based on technical ability. This keeps me on my toes! Always striving to do better and better and better.
The IOM images are judged against an international judging criteria. This is pretty high level stuff and standards are high. Very high.
The higher scoring images are assessed by the panel to be either Bronze, High Bronze, Silver and Gold. Allegedly there is also a Platinum level but who knows if this actually exists? I’ve never seen a Platinum awarded for weddings.
Wedding photography is very much in the moment so to achieve a High Bronze is really quite something; its literally a point off a Silver! There will be something daft like a dust spot that has knocked the mark off a silver. To achieve a Silver… well a huge slice of cake is in order. And for a Gold… I think I would keel over!
If I have entered images from your wedding; thank you. Thank you for working with me and indulging my creativity. These winning awards are as much yours as they are mine.
I’m so thrilled when I receive awards for my work. Judged by the gurus of my industry they are a huge deal. They are judged on techincality, posing, light, the list goes on… and on… and on…!
So when the time pressure of a wedding is bearing down, things are running behind schedule and the chef (and rightly so) won’t move service, its the photography time that is always the one thing to be squeezed. This creates huge challenges when it comes to taking images that adhere to the rules and requirements for competition standard and competition winning images.
My Clients are very special people. They value photography and have a huge appreciation of photography as an art form. Because of this I am able to take these stunning images for them because we work together as a team.