For those of you that have not heard of the APPAs, it stands for the The Australian Professional Photography Awards and is run by the AIPP (Australian Institute of Professional Photographers).
Each year, around Autumn, my life turns upside down as I prepare myself to enter these Awards. First comes the State Awards in March, and you can see my awards for this level here. Then competition steps up to a whole new level at the national level. I can enter a maximum of only 4 prints, so I need to think long and hard about which images I enter. The process of putting yourself out there for the judging panel (the best photographers in Australia) to scrutinize your work, something that you pour your heart and soul into – it can bring such a range of emotions from heart break to exhilaration all within the space of a couple of hours. It does take a huge amount of courage to allow yourself to openly be judged by your colleagues.
For years, I have plugged away at the art of photography and art being art, there is always a huge subjective element, but there is so much more to these awards that the subjective nature of photography. There are no winners or losers in these awards, and no prizes. There is simply knowledge of knowing that I have been brave enough to enter.
This year, again, I entered all of my images into the “Family” Category. It is such a new and developing category but one that I so fully believe in, and it is of course the backbone of my business. This is where my heart lies. Just to give you a little inside knowledge, the rules of this category state that the image must be a commissioned, and for this reason I really need to put a shout out there for my clients for placing their trust in me, not only to capture their memories that they hold so dear, but trusting these crazy little ideas that I have in my head. My inspiration first and foremost, comes from my clients.
This year, I scored my very first GOLD. Scoring Gold was a pipe dream for me. Ahem, I am getting goose bumps just at the thought of it. I really just wanted to say my biggest thank you to Tom and Liam – thank you for just being you. I have had a lot of people asking me about this series of images, and you can see the rest of the session blogged here. But without further adieu, here are the identical 3 1/2 year old Superheros of the APPAs for me this year.
I also scored two silver awards with these two images
I have to add that this image is now hanging as a huge framed canvas, being 150cm in width in this families house.
An lastly, from thisop photo shoot in Darwin. Thank you Kebe.
