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WPPI 2014.
The results are in and I am very proud to announce that I received two Silver Awards at the recent WPPI 16×20 Print Competition held in Las Vegas. For me, and many other wedding and portrait photographers, these awards are like the Oscars of our industry and I can’t begin to explain how happy I am to have received these awards. I have only recently started entering awards like these and this was the first time for me entering WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International).
Any judging of a creative medium is going to be subjective and largely depend on the selection of judges who are present at the time your image comes up for review. My highest scoring print in last year’s Australian Professional Photography Awards fell two points short of an award at WPPI… and perhaps an image that did well abroad wouldn’t do so well locally. Thankfully this isn’t the driving force that makes me get out of bed each day and do what I do. I love every moment of being a wedding and portrait photographer. Being entrusted to capture the most important moments of people’s lives is a huge honour and I am just thankful to be able to fill my days doing something that I love.
For me the most rewarding part of this job is when I deliver the final product, be it prints or albums, to the client. The look on the faces of brides and grooms as they relive their special day through the pages of a designer album or the look of joy and pride of the face of a mother as she unwraps prints of her children, these are the moments I cherish. These are the moments that will keep me doing what I do for many years to come. And if I continue to pick up a few awards along the way, well that’s just icing on the cake!
From the wedding of Rebecca & Garth, Yamba, March 2013
From the engagement session of Erin & Evan, Lake Ainsworth, Lennox Head, October 2013
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Bangalow Banquet. The results of an amazing community.
I have said it before and I’m sure to keep saying it for a long time to come… Bangalow has an amazing community and there is simply nowhere that I would rather raise my family. The newly released Bangalow Banquet cookbook is just another example of what this community is capable of and a fine display of the level of talent that resides within the region.
When I first heard that the community was getting together to produce a cookbook to help raise funds for the two schools in Bangalow, I must admit, I had visions of something you would find at a school fete, not on the shelves of quality retailers. The book that Bangalow has put together however would rival any cookbook available in the most boutique bookstore around the country. This publication is not only a collection of amazing recipes from local residents and restaurants, but also an historical record of how Bangalow has grown to become a must-visit holiday destination in the Byron Bay hinterland.
Spearheaded by the incredible Lara Hayes, this entire project has been the result of local residents devoting their time and skills for free. The only cost incurred throughout the entire production was the printing costs and 100% of the proceeds will go to supporting the Banglow Public School and the Bangalow Community Children’s Centre. All the culinary delights have been professionally styled by Jody Vassallo and the book has been beautifully designed by Jeannine and Dom from 2Camels Design. A host of photographers have dedicated their time to supplying the imagery for the cookbook, including myself. The front and back covers both feature images I shot just two days before the publication went to print.
On the Sunday morning before the cookbook was to go to the printers, I received a call from Lara asking if I could shoot the cover for the book that afternoon. She had arranged a bunch of locals to cook up many of the recipes featured in the cookbook and was putting together a banquet to showcase the product. Of course I was more than happy to jump in and help… and now, just a couple of weeks later, the Bangalow Banquet is available for sale and looks absolutely amazing!
The Cookbook is available to purchase now at the Bangalow Post Office, the local markets and many other retailers in Bangalow. You can also email [email protected] with ‘Order Form Request’ in the subject line to purchase online. To keep up with all of the latest news surrounding this beautiful cookbook, follow Bangalow Banquet Cookbook on Facebook.
Thanks to everyone who played a part in putting this all together. I am very proud to have been involved.
Below are a few images from the banquet photo shoot.
237 Days
This post has been a long time in the making. Not only was there more than four and a half years between these two shoots, it has also taken me around eighteen months to edit the images from the second session.
The first image below is of our eldest daughter, Asia, and was taken in June 2007 when she was 237 days old. This has long been one of my favourite images of Asia, and so when our second daughter Harper came along, I thought it would be fun to do a shoot at the same age. So in March 2012, on the day when Harper was exactly 237 days old, I created the second image. This one was taken on the train tracks down the road from where we live in Bangalow. I didn’t want to create an exact replica of Asia’s image, but did want to have a very similar composition. The train tracks worked well and gave me the result I expected… what I didn’t expect was that Harper would recreate Asia’s initial pose.
It’s incredible to see both children at the exact same age and see just how similar they are. I think this was the perfect age for this, as they have both developed and don’t look nearly as similar now. Even so, I think I may try to do a similar shoot every few years, so we have a real comparison of the girls as they grow.
I hope you like the post… sometime a doting dad just has to share : )
2013 Australian Professional Photography Awards
This past weekend was the 37th Canon AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards. The APPAs provide a platform for professional photographers to enter images they have produced within the previous 24 months and have them judged by some of the very best talent in the industry.
This was my first time entering the national awards and I am very proud to say that I received 2 awards in the highly competitive wedding category. The first image came from the wedding of Rebecca & Garth in Yamba earlier this year, featuring a caravan on the main road into Yamba where a local sugar cane farmer sells hay-bales. This image received a silver award. My second image received a Silver Distinction and is from the wedding of Carly & Coady in November last year. This image was taken out the back of Alstonville on a private property. When I first approached the owner for permission to shoot under this tree, his reply was one of bewilderment… ‘What that scraggly ol’ thing? Sure, go ahead!’. That ‘scraggly ol’ tree’ now features prominently on the wall of my studio, as a double page spread in the couple’s wedding album and currently on the Silver Distinction wall at the APPAs in Melbourne.
Congratulations to all of my colleagues who picked up awards over the weekend and good luck to the category winners who are most likely being announced in Melbourne as I write this post.
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