Print Competition

Hi there, time for a new blog post. this one is titled : “i.am.excited.”. why?  well, this is competition season.  I just drove in from Kerrville, Texas. Kerrville? Yes, Kerrville-it was really pretty, the river was lovely. Am I just excited about seeing a pretty river? no. why then? wait for it…wait for it…    ha ha

I entered four prints into the Annual Texas State Professional Photographers Association annual competition.  For those photographers out there that do not know about this, you can enter four prints and you can enter a folio and an album if you choose as well but, as far as prints, you get four. I entered four prints, no album this year (forgot) and no folio (I have never entered a folio).  Anyway, I entered four prints, three were portraits and one was an illustrative (architecture piece).  I was really excited because all my portraits came home with an award and my illustrative came home with an awesome score.

So..the excitement is that I brought home:

-two judge’s choice awards

-three distinguished print awards

-highest print case for a non master. Second highest print case overall (my friend Richard from Dallas beat me for highest print case overall and I was so excited for him. we were sitting at the same table and he won a bunch of trophies in the categories that he was eligible for that night as well.  I was very proud of him)

-trophy for Best portrait of a man

-trophy for Best portrait overall –So, I was super excited about that because that was over all portraits, kids, women, men, groups, pets…you name it. That was awesome and then…. holy cow!

-A KODAK AWARD. First reaction was “get out of town charlie brown!!!! Me? a KODAK?” I was soooo honored and sooooo excited, anyone who saw me, will tell you that my smile was ear to ear. I was super duper duper excited over that one!  This also means that I am eligible to submit my image to the Imaging USA Kodak Elite competition in January of 2011 for a shot at the KODAK ELITE award. Ouuhhh..I would love to have one of those just once in my career. Of course, this was my first KODAK award period and that felt really really good.

Anyway, I am not putting the images up just yet as I am competing at the Southwest conference this year and a few of these prints will go there so to avoid too many people seeing them, I will post them in September when it is all over.

So, interesting week… the PPA  international print competition was this past weekend in Florida as well and I am dying to know how I did there. I sent four prints there as well and I do not know the results….looking forward to those.

See ya!

Where have I been? Not on my blog

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind–and at some moments, literally a whirlwind. Over the last few weeks, this is where I have been. Dallas, Oklahoma City,  Tulsa, and Austin. 

First. one week in Dallas..Had a great time at the TPPA event there. It was great to see all my photographer friends from around the state and other states! Loved every minute of it. Came back for one day and did a bunch of sessions and then left again for Oklahoma. I went to go speak in Oklahoma City on the night of their first huge, national news making, destroying tornado. Holy cow! Before you ask..no, I did not take any photos of it. So, I went to Oklahoma as the May keynote speaker to the professional photographers association in OK city and the tornado came. long story short…city sirens went off, got sent to the freezer in a restaurant…still ticking in Austin Texas - Maria survival rate: 100%   I had a great time with that group. They were so inviting and they treated me really well.  The next day I went to Tulsa as the May keynote speaker to the Professional Photographer’s Association of Tulsa. That was a funny group. They laughed a lot, they were so much fun! Overall, speaking in Oklahoma was a great experience, minus the tornado.

After that, I got back to Austin in time to photograph clients for two straight days and then the Austin Professsional Photographer’s Association held their annual print competition. I entered and I was so excited to win a First Place Tropy for Best Portrait, a Second Place Trophy for Best Portrait, a Third Place Tropy for Best Illustrative Image, a First Place Trophy for Best Wedding Image, The BEST IN SHOW Trophy, and a Judge’s choice award. Overall, I was super duper excited but to tell you the truth I was more excited for my associate photographer, Nathan who entered one print and received the second place trophy for an Illustrative image, and my friend Dianna Walker who won first place. I was so proud of them!!!! I gave them huge hugs..

Then, I have had session after session, a couple of personal things that got me distracted and another wedding to shoot. I am finally back in the office for a few days. I am on vacation this weekend, then I leave for Fort Worth to speak to their Professional Photographer’s Association, then I come back and then I go to Kerrville for the Texas State Annual Print Competition, then I go to Iowa to photograph the Bridges of Madison county and then, I am flying to Chicago to photograph one of my favorite couples, Esosa and Marcus for their anniversary.  Nathan and I photographed their engagement last year, her bridal and her two days of wedding (Nigerian and traditional european ceremonies). You can probably find them in a previous blog.

Talk to you all soon and I know that I have a lot of photos to post and I will do so very soon!!!

Maria

Hi Everyone,

APPA meeting this month was interesting for me.  I entered the monthly print competition and I was also the key note speaker that evening.

On the competition, I was fortunate enough to win first place this month and I was excited. The print that won is an image from one of my brides that I took a few months back, her name is Bianca and she was so pretty and so awesome!  I absolutely love this print because I like the subject and I liked the challenge of making it. This print is a composite, the doves were not there and the smoke was not there either.  The wind, however, was there so..thank you Mother Nature. I photographed the smoke in my studio. Thank goodness I bought a smoke maching several months back, figured I would need it one day. This is the print, do you like it?

Also that evening, I was the key note speaker on “The Art of Fashion”. This was the kick off for my tour. The next city I am going to with this program is San Antonio, I am looking forward to that. I will be speaking in San Antonio, Lubbock, Dallas, Oklahoma, Ozarks and other cities around the Southwest.  We did a live shoot and I photographed Kendall,  Maris Malone Calderon did the makeup, like usual and Jonnie did the hair. Great job ladies. below is a photo that I took that evening in a make shift studio in the restauant of the Holiday Inn. For those photographers that were there that evening and are reading this blog, the first image is the one that I did in the “clamshell” lighting  with both lights on the stand and the last one just the modeling light.  Enjoy.

See ya!

Maria

Hoooo Doggy!  The SW convention was super long and the judges were super tough.  Many photographers and lots of competition.  First off, let me say this was my first time to enter.  This is how it works as far as I understand it.. You can enter 4 prints-yes, only 4.  Each print is scored on a point scale with 100 being perfect.  If score below an 80, you don’t merit. You need 25 merits to get your master of photography title (13 from print merits and 12 from other merits like going to conventions.. and other stuff). If you get 4 for 4 at the National level, you automatically get the title of Photographer of the year. If you merit 4 for 4 at SW, all you have to do is submit your case to Nationals and you will get the title. If you get 2 for 4 then, you send 2 to Nationals and you now have a shot at photographer of the year but you need two more merits to add to the two you have.  That is why going 4 for 4 at SW is great because then…no more worrying about what to enter at Nationals.

So, now you know the scoring but let me tell you about the judging-it is brutal.  There is a room and a little rotating thingy. The rotating thingy holds a print. In the room are all the judges and an audience. The audience must be silent the WHOLE TIME (ouch. what if you want to get up and say…hey! re-think that print judges? nope.  ). The announcer will state the title and rotate the thingy and the print shows up.  The judges do not know who made the print (in theory but for those folks that go a lot one would tend to pick up their style).  The judges will look at the print and score it.  Sometimes they score it and move on, sometimes they rip it apart for good OR for bad. If a judge does not like a print, he or she can CHALLENGE the score and give the reasons and then it is re-scored and sometimes it can go higher and sometimes it can go lower. 

Question of the day-How did Maria do at the competition? Okay, I am getting to it…I am sitting in the room on Friday hoping all my prints come out in one day and then I don’t have to worry about sitting there on Saturday too.  NOPE. Three of my prints are on Friday (not all one after another) and then the last on came out on Saturday. HOLY COW!! I sat there on Friday from 8am to 6pm to wait for my prints to come up. YUCK.  Okay, so my first print comes up, it is “20 to life” (pictured below). They scored it a 79 and then a judge challenged it. He said it was very well done technically and it should merit. They all discussed it and felt that the lighting on it was awesome. They liked the title but, they wished that the gentleman had ID on his shirt. IT MERITED! Phew. I think I would have liked a higher score, but it merited. Next came “court of conscience”. Remember that one? I got a trophy AND a distinguished print award at State earlier this year on that print. They turned the print around, the judges look at it and scored it a 76. OUCH! They never even got up to look at it. No discussion. I did not merit on that.  Next came “Seduction of the black widow”. I was worried at this point because I was only 1 for 2. It comes out..score 86. CHALLENGE! One of the judges challenged the 86 and said..”this belongs in a higher category of scoring”. They all talked about it with arguments and rebuttals and then…Presto a 91!! Holy crap. Only 8 images got above a 90 on that day, that was exciting. by Friday night, I was 2 for 3.  I knew that 3 for 4 was my best shot. Saturday comes and I wait and I wait and then they announg “release me and let me grow”. Score. 78. CHALLENGE! Another judge said he was so glad that he got up, the shot was brilliant. He loved it and wanted it above an 85. I love that judge right now.  They argued about it. One judge siad 75 because he didn’t get it. argh.  Final result…81. phew.

So…all in all I merited 3 prints out of my 4 and my meriting scores were 80, 81, and 91. Apparently, it is hard to get ONE merit let alone 3. Several of my friends got 0 for 4 and that made me sad.  Ok, then comes the awards banquet…yaddi yaddi yadda, dinner, speech and other stuff. I got two distinguished print awards and both on the “Sduction of the black widow”. Next step? well now I have 3 merits in my National Print case, I need one more image that I think will wow the judges and then I will have 4 for 4 and I can get Photographer of the Year 2010.  some data: Only 9 prints out of Texas got a 90 or above, I am proud to have one of those prints. Woo hoo-I soooo have a goal for next year.

THANK YOU TO Profoto for your awesome lights, I can’t do my work without them. THANK YOU to BWC for making me some AMAZING prints of these images.  Here are all 4 prints.

Court of Conscience

Release me and let me grow

 

Seduction of the black widow

 

20 to life

Tonight was the monthly meeting for the Austin Guild of the Professional Photographer’s Association. I’m excited because I won first place.   This image is of Scott.  Scott needed a headshot for his employment and we did that but then he wanted something different and quirky. Something that he could see hanging in some gallery. He said “you’re creative, do something unique”. Yipes!   That is always a welcomed challenge.

I really like this image. I think his expression is dead on and the black and white conversion is awesome. For the photographers out there that read my blog, this is a single light, small softbox lit at 8 feet above ground with a slightly off center butterfly lighting technique. Of course I used my Profoto lights, only studio lighting that I use. They are the best!

Well I hope you all like it as much as I do-it is certainly quirky. It is one of those images that you have to stare at a lot and then it just starts growing and growing on you, well it is for me. I liked it when I shot it but I totally love it and I have a copy of it in my office. Enjoy.

HOLY CRAP! It is 10:44pm and I just got home from the monthly meeting of the Austin Professional Photographers Association, we meet at the Holiday Inn at the Arboretum in Austin every month. It was a long meeting tonight and I can’t belive it but I won FIRST PLACE for the monthly print competition.   That is exciting.

I have to say that I am super stoked about all the awesome stuff that has been happening to me with my photography. I took home best portrait, best illustrative and best in show trophies at the annual PPA print competition for Austin guild, I took home distinguished print and two first place trophies from the Texas state competition in Kerrville and tonight another first place.  Cool I have been truly blessed with much good luck in the last 6 weeks or so.

I also want to congratulate William (second place) and Brian (third place). It was so cool to see those two next to me. William is like my partner in crime and we talk about photography all the time-this was William’s first time entering and I am so proud of him. Brian was a former student of mine and I was so excited to see him in the top three, Brian did a lovely job with his entry. You can see their winning pieces on the Austin PPA website.

I had two favorite parts of the evening. First…  when my name was called as the winner, I specifically heard a few people say “I thought that was hers”. Second…someone came up to me after the meeting and said..”you teach lighting? I know lighting but I don’t know THAT kind of lighting! Do you do 1:1 training, we will be talking soon!”  Well, I was excited about the first thing because that means that people know my brand and my work by looking at it.  I think it is pretty awesome that people are recognizing my work without telling them. cool   The second was cool because it makes me feel good that other professional photographers respect my lighting ability-which is good since I actually do teach it and I love teaching it.

Anyway, I know I am rambling but I was excited so I thought I would write about it.  In case you want to know what the winning image was, here it is. Hope you enjoyed the blog.