It gets busy in December, doesn’t it!  We are currently scrambling to complete all our weddings before we close for the year, and of course finish all our lovely framed xmas portraits plus a few other projects, amid the normal family end-of-year mayhem.

Walking to work last week I saw one of my photos on the poster for Pat Urlich’s new album, which is available at some of the local shops (Island Designs is where I saw this poster).  I had the pleasure of photographing Pat a few months ago for his CD.  It was such a fun shoot, and I loved the images we got.

I’ve been in this industry for almost 20 years now (!!) and it’s still a total thrill to see my images in use – sometimes it’s on the street like Pat’s poster, or sometimes it’s when I go into one of my lovely client’s homes and see a portrait of their gorgeous children on the wall.  I love that I am capturing these moments of people’s lives, and I feel a little glow of satisfaction to see their images in pride of place in their homes.  Warm and Fuzzy.

OK, back to the coalface computer.
x

Last week I found out that I had received both a Gold Award AND a Silver Award at this year’s Kodak Gold Awards.  Both were for my portrait work.  The Silver was a photograph of the gorgeous Mattson family down at Oneroa beach, an image which is typical of my style of relaxed family portraiture. (Book in quick for your Christmas portrait… everyone loves to receive photos of the people they cherish so photos make GREAT Christmas pressies!).

The Gold Award was for a studio portrait of beautiful local treasure Terri Woolmore Goodwin.  She is one of the many lovely “Senior Citizens” who will be featured in an up coming exhibition I am doing of the “Young at Heart” on Waiheke.  She was the first person I photographed for the exhibition and I am absolutely rapt that her image received an award.

More on the exhibition later…

This year’s NZIPP Conference and Annual Iris Awards took place down in Christchurch (yes, we had a couple of earthquakes whilst down there – eeek!), and was once again a fabulous event with heaps of great speakers.  I always come away with a gazillion things to think about, and freshly inspired to create gorgeous images.

This year I was also judging again in both the Creative and Classic Wedding Categories and also the Creative and Classic Portrait Categories.  It was a great year for entries with over 1200 received and many awards given.  For my efforts I received three Silver Awards, one of which was a Silver with Distinction, and six bronzes over three categories; Wedding Creative, Classic Portrait and Illustrative.

I’m really delighted with such a great result… Thanks to Kirsten and Gary, Cam and Diana, Anna and Justin, Dione, and Pat for being such fabulous subjects!   You can see all the award winners on the NZIPP Iris Awards results page HERE

Getting this many awards meant that I also received another “Bar to my Masters”, a recognition of gaining an additional ten points on the awards system, so that was mighty nice too!

A little teaser for locals… come and see who you know in our shop window – lot’s of lovely mums with their beloveds.

(sorry about the highly unskilled iphone snap with a gazillion reflections, including my own… sigh, what an amateur!)

Only a few more days left to enter our Mothers Day Competition, Waihekians!!  Just tell us what you love most about your Mum, and you could be in to win a Portrait Session and Framed Wall Print for FREEEEEEEEE.

Entry forms in the latest Gulf News, or just print this one out.  Drop your answers in to our gallery on the corner of Tui St and Oceanview Rd no later than Friday the 11th.   Good Luck!

I have been working on my new website for a wee while and am REALLY pleased to finally have it up online.  It’s quite a different look from the last one and has all new images on it as well as facebook and twitter links, so feel free to click through and “like’ my ‘Emma Hughes Photography’ page if you are a facebook-er.

The new site has loads of lovely wedding photos, as well as heaps of cute children’s photos, baby photography, pregnancy shoots, family portraits, couples photos, boudoir and body shots and of course a whole lot of individual portraits (never really know what to call these – ‘adult portraits’ just sounds kinda wrong!).

A new portfolio section we added this time around is a called ‘generations’ – these are a selection of the multi family portraits of extended family that we often do at Christmas and other holidays when everyone is all gathered together.  Waiheke is the perfect location for these extended family portraits and they are always really special, involving everyone from the smallest babies through to the great grandmothers.

Check out the new site HERE