ISPWP Photo Contest Results!

Woot! I'm #19! The results are in for the second quarter ISPWP photo contest and I'm pretty darn pleased that 17 of the 20 images I entered placed and gave me an overall ranking of #19.

Why do I enter photo contests? Well for a few reasons. Wedding photography in particular is a tricky sort of photography to get real-world feed back on. And if you are a photographer, chances are (hopefully) that your clients love your work, your family and friends think you are brilliant and for the most part you are told that your work is fabulous. It's pretty hard for someone to tell you a photo sucks if it is a photo of a loved one, they just don't see it. So for me it's really important that I get critical feedback from my peers and colleagues regarding composure, exposure and key elements that make a photo great. Not just good, or cute, or "pretty".

Time spent in photo critique will rip your soul out and teach you more than you can image. It's something I'll continue to do year after year, not just for the accolades and the chance to pimp myself out as "award winning" but because it pushes me to be creative while working often in the same venues week after week.

Before every wedding or session I give myself a challenge. Some of my recent ones that I can recall have been


1. Shoot more with the 85 today (Not a lens I love, so I wanted to see if I wasn't giving it a chance. I do have a predilection to have "pet" lenses)

2. Shoot sun flare balanced with flash outside. (This worked! Check out Kyle and Amanda's e-photos)

3. After the safe processional shot, shoot panning with a low shutter speed balanced with flash to show movement and blur(It didn't work...but it might next time! And I'll keep trying it until I get it)


You get the idea :) And now, here are the winners from ISPWP!





Here's an example where panning with movement did work...tech info 1/15 f2.8

















These next two were another challenge: Shoot natural light only (with the aid of the DJ's lights), on a boat, at night with no ambient light. These two images are the results of that, but holy cow did I get sea sick getting them! It seems having a camera up to your face while holding your breath to account for low shutter speeds did not agree with me. I had to sit down for a minute after these images, but it was worth it!