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.
There’s a rather blunt phrase in the photography industry: “Shoot for show or shoot for dough”. What this means is that you shoot for your clients (to be paid) or you shoot purely creatively or “for show”. In my mind there is no reason why you can’t do both.
My key focus is always you, my clients, rather than taking images that are going to win me awards – when they do that’s an added bonus but its not my core focus. My focus is on you and you alone. Not taking you off for an hour’s hike to some look out point for dramatic effect (we can do that on a post wedding shoot – ask me about that!). I am 100% invested in creating images that are perfect for you and perfect for your wedding day.
The relationships I build with my clients is critical to this.
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.
We always have a plan for the day that both my Clients and I have worked on so that we maximise the time we have.
All of my Client relationships are built on mutual understanding and trust. This is critical as it means that on the wedding day, the lovely calm we have when taking their couples portraits ensures that they are at their most relaxed and the trust they have in me and my work allows me to take these stunning images as they know that I am ensuring they look incredible.
So if I happen to have an opportunity to take award winning images at your wedding… thank you!
Dani & Ralph 04.09.2020
Blog to follow soon featuring Hannah and Dan’s elegant Micro Wedding at Ellenborough Park…
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 who judge 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, 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 Bronze is really quite something. 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.