Hi everyone!!!
I am so excited tonight and I had to blog about it. Today, I entered prints at the annual print show for the Professional Photographer’s Association Austin chapter (it covers the greater Austin area like Cedar Park, Georgetown, Smithville…etc). There are three categories of prints: Portrait, Wedding, and Illustrative. I entered in Portrait and Illustrative. Yes, I am a wedding photographer but I did not enter into the wedding category. Why? I dunno.
Anyway, I am SOOOO excited that I can say that I won BEST PORTRAIT. I can also say that I won BEST ILLUSTRATIVE. Anyway, both of those were so exciting but, wait- there’s more! I am evern more excited to say that I won BEST IN SHOW. HOLY COW!!! I was SO not expecting those. I was just hoping to score high enough on my prints to get points on them-but to win BEST in the two categories that I entered in as well as best in show was CRRRRAZY. Our judges were Master Photographers Ross, Dixie, and Jim. (I will update this post with their information on Monday when I get it) None of them are from the Austin Area. The process is brutal. Your title is announced and then it starts… the staring, the getting up and looking closer, the judges nitpicking everything about your work. They don’t know who the creator of the print is, they only know title and image. So, the creator of the image is sitting in the crowd and listening to them rip your work apart. Wow-not easy to sit through that.
Thought you would like to see the images that won and their titles and the story behind them..
BEST PORTRAIT (this portrait is much cooler when you see it printed). The detail in it is pretty awesome and Laura (in the photo) looks stunning. Thanks Laura!!!
TITLE: WONDERMENT
BEST ILLUSTRATIVE PORTRAIT
TITLE: ABANDONMENT
Abadonment is a piece about a person who has been rejected by both church and state. There is nowhere for this person to go. This is a composite image. The church is in Freyburg, Texas. The eagle is from an image that I took from the San Antonio zoo, and the person is Jamie Batiste and I photographed her in my studio.
BEST IN SHOW:
TITLE: ABANDONMENT
I was shocked when the master photographer judges chose this as BEST IN SHOW. I had to ask them why and then I sad “are you sure?” because there were some gorgeous images there yesterday. They said they loved the story behind it, which they imagined (I was not able to tell them what it was about before they judged it this evening) and they felt that the image relayed that story. hmmm…. well, I am still excited.
Do you like the images? Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to.
WISH ME LUCK, I AM TAKING THEM TO REGIONALS IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!
m.
