2014 International Loupe Awards

by Awards

This year we had our first crack at the International Loupe Awards. We have a little award experience now thanks to the QPPAs and APPAs, and this is the first time our images have been judged by an international panel of judges. Very happy that we picked up five bronze awards from six entries!

Monika’s Unlimited Dance Studio 2014

by DancePerformance

We had the most fun photographing the students from Monika’s Unlimited Dance Studio a few weeks ago. As well as more traditional dance school images of the students and of classes, we challenged ourselves to shoot some fine art style images of some of the older dancers, using light to really accentuate the amazing contours and shapes the dancers created.

I think this is my favourite image from the day.

The dancers produced not just amazing poses and held positions, but great jumping shots.

These are partners for a piece entitled “Say Something” – the stories they’re telling in their poses are fantastic.

This is Wanda’s absolute favourite from the shoot. Her power, her face, her pose and the angles, right down to her hair. Fantastic stuff.

The crew for the day. Professional dancers all.* Huge thanks to Stefan for shooting with us, for Fi for helping wrangle students, and to Monika for everything!

 

* Not all of us are professional dancers. Hard to believe.

Australian Professional Photography Awards 2014

by Awards

The Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPAs) represents the pinnacle of professional imagery each year. Accredited professional photographers may enter up to four images; each are judged individually, and photographers that focus (hah photographer joke there sorry what was I saying) on one category vie for the honours of winning that category. If you are curious to know what makes a category winner, check out the 2014 winners.

Last year I managed two Silvers, one in Portrait and one in Illustrative. This year, I took the four images that scored well at the 2014 QPPAs and  submitted them for the APPAs. My personal goal was to get two Silvers. Happy to say that I exceeded my goal! My two prints in Illustrative each scored Silver, and one of the two prints in Travel scored a Silver with Distinction!

It’s lovely that the certificates have my name on them, but every image is a collaboration. Each of them was carefully printed by Tristam Evison of EV Photo; I met him earlier this year at an AIPP event, and trusting him with the printing and handling of my images was definitely the right choice. Big thanks to Elizabeth, Danielle, Nigel and Shane for the teamwork on the central image above. And similarly big thanks to Kimberley and all the members of Dawn for being awesome; this image has been very good to me this year! My biggest thanks to my wife Wanda, who was with me for most of these shoots, helped me select images, poked holes and critiqued in an excellent way, and generally encouraged me to produce the best work I could.

For a closer look at each of these, check out my QPPA post from a few months back.

I have a goal for the 2015 APPAs – to perform well enough to earn my Associateship with the Australian Institute of Professional Photography. Fingers crossed!