A little shout out to free e-mag NZ Photographer, edited by award winning commercial photographer Ollie Dale, president of the Auckland chapter of the NZIPP and all round good guy… Ollie, this shout out has NOTHING to do with the fact that my winning album is featured within your pages… honest.  Well, almost honest.

Wow, well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when they announced me as the winner of the NZIPP Iris Awards Wedding Album of the Year for 2010.  I was up against three other NZ photographers (Kate MacPherson, Sarah Beaufoy and Tony Carter) who are all spectacularly good and whose work I LOVE to pieces so it was such an honour and a wonderful surprise to hear them call my name.

Don’t mind that other little award in front of me, it belongs to the poor cropped out soul to my right who is the lovely Blair Quax, this years’ Wedding Photographer of the Year. Sorry about the whole cropping you out of the picture Blair…

As well as this accolade I received another Bar to my Masters (which means that I have received at least 10 points on the judging system since I was appointed the ‘Master of Photography’ distinction – each gold is worth 3 points, silvers 2 and bronzes 1 and each additional 10 points gives you another bar).  I also was awarded 1 Silver with distinction Award, 2 Silver Awards and 3 Bronze Awards!  A very good year and I am pretty happy with the results.  Here are the successful prints…

NZIPP Silver Award, with Distinction - Portrait Category

NZIPP Silver Award - Portrait Category

The photo above is of my lovely little boy Joe – what a little darling to let his mummy give him a mohawk!
And this shot below received a bronze and is a pregnancy photo of wonderful Waiheke physiotherapist-extraordinaire Ingrid, who very graciously climbed a bit of the way up a cliff face for me. (Thanks Ingrid!)

The photo above is of Onetangi Beach bride Toni hugging her mum as she walks down the aisle, petals all a swirling… LOVE this shot!  You can see Toni’s wedding HERE.

This shot below received a bronze in the wedding category and was from the wedding of Bec and Scott.  One of the judges scored it at 92 which is a GOLD but unfortunately the other 4 judges obviously didn’t feel the same way!  Stinko.  Bec’s wedding post is HERE

And lastly, a couple of my favourite layouts from the Wedding Album of the Year entry which were taken from the completely gorgeous wedding of Samantha and Graham at Delamore Lodge here on Waiheke Island – link to their blog post HERE.
I will try and upload a slideshow of the album in a few days time…

Thanks so very very much to all my fabulous brides who were happy to let me use their photos in this competition – You are all STUNNING!!  The Wedding Album of the Year category is sponsored by New Zealand Bride and Groom Magazine so thanks very much to them also for the support.
xx

Jodi and Matt’s wedding was STUNNING!  Absolutely gorgeous.  They had a large and very fun group of bridesmaids and groomsmen and there was a LOT of laughter, a few tears and goodtimes aplenty at this wedding.  The ceremony was held at Cable Bay Vineyard which is located in Church Bay here on Waiheke Island.  The weather on the day was a perfect blue sky day and we had fabulous golden sun and great dramatic clouds to play with for their Creative Session photos. 

There are heaps of photos to post so I will get on with it!

Jodi’s veil still had her name on it so we thought we’s use it in a photo as a bit of a laugh.

Spinning girls and studly men!

A beautiful pre-ceremony calming moment…

Well, Jodi did request some shots of her veil flying in the wind… (although this is probably not what she meant!).  This photo won a bronze award at this years’ NZIPP Iris Awards in August.

Cable Bay has so many awesome areas to use for wedding day photos – these two shots below are taken down in their very luxurious cellar room.

MMMmmmm, I LOVE this last shot – so dreamy!  Thanks Jodi and Matt – it was a real pleasure capturing your fun, happy day.

This year’s Kodak Gold Awards received over 800 entries so I was delighted to receive 2 Golds and 2 Silvers for my work this year. The two golds were both for wedding work – one Gold Award for a print and one Gold Award for a wedding album and the Silvers were for portrait photos – one from a “Bellies” session and one from the “Babes” session of the same lovely family! How cool is that!?

We have recently returned from the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography Annual Epson/Iris Awards which was held in Wellington.  It was a great conference again this year with keynote speakers Yervant and Rob Imhoff (both from Australia) and NZ photographers Johannes van Kan, John Crawford, Tony Whincup, Nick Servian, and John Doogan all giving excellent and informative presentations.  There was also a presentation from Weta Workshop guru Karim Sahai about the use of still photography in movies.  A busy and informative conference this year!

This year, I received a total of three Silver Awards (one of my silvers was also given a “distinction award”) and four Bronze Awards for my photographs.  The judging was really hard again this year so I was absolutely delighted with this result.  I was also one of three runners-up for the coveted title of Wedding Photographer of the Year.  (This accolade was won by Tony Carter who is an awesome wedding and portrait photographer from the Taranaki region.) AND in addition, I gained my Masters Status this year

I am now officially a Master of Photography with the NZIPP!

Wedding category winners…

Thank you to my gorgeous brides Mon-Wei, Jodi, Wendy and Leslea!

The People Category winners…

This last shot is our annual family portrait!   It’s one of true pleasures of my job that I get to capture and record other people’s families and special events.  I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of recording your visual history as life ebbs and flows so every year we make sure that we do a photo of ourselves together as a family.  Not a snapshot, but a “real photo”.  This ALWAYS gives me new appreciation of how hard it is to co-ordinate all members of the family to be looking in the same direction at the same time (and this is noticably more difficult when using a self timer!!).

This year I have started working on a project/exhibition idea that I am loosely thinking of as “the things that betray us”, i.e., the outward signs of the things we feel or choose and what they tell others about us (either intentionally or unintentionally).  So, this family portrait ties in with this thinking; we went for a long walk along the beach one afternoon and I asked the kids and Lance to select their favourite shell for our photo.  At another time, on another beach they would have selected a different shell and I love that this image is a combination of random chance and thoughtful consideration and serves as a portrait which tells you a little about the subjects while still leaving a lot to the imagination of the viewer.

OK, less talk, more photos! … 

ABOVE: Emma on Bubbles!  
BELOW: Receiving my Masters at the Gala Dinner…