Last year I won a few 2nd and 3rd places so I decided to go all out and try very hard to get a win this year. I knew that we had two brilliant judges - Martin Grahame-Dunn and Kevin Pengelly - so I put two heads on when I did my image selection. Two thirds were very classic in nature while the other third were from last year's series on children - still classic but much stronger in tone and composition.
The video is above (click on photo) and here is the full list of my wins:
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Classical Portraiture WINNER
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Family Portraiture WINNER
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Wedding Party (Bridal Party) WINNER
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Press & PR WINNER
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Child Portraiture Award of Excellence Joint 2nd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Child Portraiture Award of Excellence Joint 2nd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Family Portraiture Award of Excellence 2nd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Wedding Photojournalism Award of Excellence 2nd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Press & PR Award of Excellence 2nd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Classical Portraiture Merit 3rd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Contemporary Wedding Merit 3rd Place
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Child Portraiture Merit
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Child Portraiture Merit
MPA South East
Regional Awards 2012 Classical Wedding Merit
I can't explain how it felt to win 14 awards which must have been a third of the overall awards. And more importantly I won four categories. And when I look at where I won I am so pleased that it was with work that I really love doing - portraits & weddings. The win for Press & PR (along with 2nd place in that category) was an added bonus. I spend around 10% of my year working with businesses.
Interestingly I won both the wedding group and family group categories. I try very hard with all of my groups whether during a wedding or a family portrait shoot and I am thrilled to be recognised for this skill. I believe very strongly that whoever you hire to do a grouping should know what they are doing. Not only does it make the session go smoothly, but it also gives clients photographs that they can be proud of for many generations to come. There is nothing worse that taking time to do family groups on a wedding only for the bride's mother's feet to look ungainly in the final photographs. Perish the thought!
Huge thanks to Rebecca for her guidance - she also helped me gain my Associateship of the Master Photographers Association last year - and to Martin & Kevin for their judging. I learned a huge amount from them both and they made everything so fun and interesting. And to Claire & Sarah for putting on a very professional day. I am beyond impressed.
Not quite sure how I can top all of this in 2013???!!!
Wow, what amazing weather yesterday! Horrendous drizzly rain for days and horrible again today with a sunny break for Vintage Nation at Brighton Racecourse. What a relief!
To see a few shots of some of the Festival-goers please click
HERE or on the photo below. I'm afraid the slideshow only works on computers (not iPhones/iPads).
I was so impressed with everyone's outfits and it seemed a shame to choose only 30ish people but to me these showed a wonderfully eclectic mix of visitors there to shop, listen to music, eat, drink and have a generally chilled out time.
Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair organised the festival in association with
Crabbie's, with
Hairport doing a roaring trade in hair dos in their very smart lounge. Downstairs the traders sold clothing, furniture, toys, homewares etc. and there was music everywhere, running through the decades with something for everyone. I'm afraid I wimped out at around 5pm so I missed the evening's entertainment but it promised to be fantastic.
I decided to be civilised and set up in the Tea Rooms and big thanks to Kevin and Sharon from
Old Time Tea Time for helping me (I am SO grateful). They provided gorgeous vintage crockery so that everyone could have wonderfully civilised afternoon tea. My flag looked great in the surroundings and big thanks to Judy, Ruth, and the 5-year old little girl with the new haircut who helped me with my reflector.
Thank you especially to the forty-three people who kindly allowed me to photograph them. You were all fabulous! 'll get your shots to you by next Saturday. x