After attending ComeUnity (a professional photography workshop) last fall, I set a goal to enter my images into competition. There is a big difference between a competition and a contest. The Shoot & Share photography contest that I shared yesterday for example, allowed anyone to view the photos randomly and vote for their favorites. The photos with the most votes won. The Shuttferfest Image Competition, on the other hand, is scored by professional photographers/judges using the Portrait Photographers Association 12 Elements to a Merit Image guidelines.
The results arrived much sooner than I anticipated and I’m tickled to announce that both images I submitted merited and received Shutterfest 2017 Vision Awards! That means I now get to enjoy the feather in my hat of being an award winning child and pet photographer!
While the peer recognition is extremely exciting, I’m actually looking forward most to seeing the video of the judging. Why?! You might ask. Okay, I might also be a little nervous about the critiques, but my objective in entering the competition was to push myself to grow as an artist, grow as a business owner and grow as a person. I truly look forward to the honest, unbiased and useful feedback I anticipate from the judges.
Thank you to my friends and mentors who encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone and enter!
One of the perks of the ComeUnity workshop was a fully stylized bridal couple session. An entire team came together to create a dreamy scene complete with elegant furniture pieces and breathtaking flowers for us to photograph.
Our stylish bride and groom had actually already wed in Florida. I was amazed by our “bride.” From what I know, she was not a professional model, but boy, she rocked it like she was. Matter of fact, she made me think of this video of YouTube where a guy demonstrates fast posing during a catalog shoot. Beyond her posing, she showed extreme tenacity when it came to dealing with the humidity. Posing in high heels and a fitted dress is hard work and she quickly began to not feel great. She’d pause for a bit as we hydrated her and cooled her down with damp rags. But quickly she’d be back up and working her magic. Seriously, this girl impressed me.
Next week I’ll share what I seem to want to call our attendee “family photos” from the ComeUnity workshop. I’m pretty sure that gives you a hint at how I felt we connected while at the retreat. I look forward to sharing those and a brief review.
While away in Georgia at a workshop, I had the opportunity to photograph a stylized engagement shoot. Now Claire and Ryan are not actually engaged…quite yet, but my guess is they will be in the future. What an adorably, sweet couple with a rockin’ sense of style.
Claire happens to be quite an amazing photographer herself, check her out at Claire Diana Photography.
