Monday, March 17, 2008

Viva Las Vegas!!!

I am in Las Vegas for the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) convention and having an absolutely great time!

Shan and I flew in on Friday night and spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday morning sitting in on the 16x20 Print Competition Judging. I had submitted 5 images in the Premier category. (Meaning that I had never competed in an International 16x20 print competition before) It was extremely enlightening to hear the comments the judges were making and to learn what they are looking for. All of the comments that they made about my images I completely agreed with...good and bad. Having this information will really help me in my future print competition submissions.

I am pleased to announce that I did earn an Accolade of Excellence for one of my images and it may be published in WPPI's Album 2008. This is the image that received the Accolade of Excellence. (I think that technically I am not supposed to know this, but I was sitting there when it was judged so I have early information!)


We have had the pleasure of hearing a number of amazing speakers already this weekend. We have heard from Me Ra Koh, Pepper Nix, Jules Bianchi, Sara France, Mike Colon, Joe Buissink and Denis Reggie.

We have also taken some time to relax and have fun. We have really enjoyed meeting up with our photographer friends from around the world and hanging out with them. We went to a party at Club Rouge in the Celebrity Suite at the Palms last night and had a great time socializing and getting to know some of our new friends better. Here is a quick collage of our first couple of days here in Vegas and some highlights from the Club Rouge Party.


We were also able to get some shooting time in with 2 models at the Club Rouge Party. The models were there for us to be able to practice our Couple's Boudoir photography and to gain some amazing images for our portfolios! Here is a collage of the work that I got last night. (Keep in mind with the boudoir images that I was shooting with 9 other photographers in the room at the same time shooting and we only shot for about 10 minutes! So these were quick captures and very on the fly! Of course...it helps when you have drop dead gorgeous models to work with! LOL. Thank you Brittany and Justin! You were a blast to work with!)


Anyway...that is just a little update from me. We will be going to a formal cocktail party tonight, so I am sure that I will have a lot of great images from that to post tomorrow!

Steph

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woohoo! Sounds like fun! And congrats on the award! That's awesome!

Anonymous said...

Wow... that wedding picture was gorgeous. You literally had to have the perfect setting for that one. I don't know if you knew it or not, but back when I was in college I worked at a photography studio... was sort of like the Assistant Manager I guess you would say, though it wasn't actually my title. The photographer I worked for did the wedding pictures of the George's, who used to own Tangiers restuarant, and she had entered one of them into an international competition and took first place for it. I didn't tell you about that to brag, but rather to say that I have seen my share of pictures and you have a real talent that if you pay attention to what those judges said (which from the other pictures you took and posted below looks like you have!!) you will go places when it comes to competitions and thus your career in photography will go places!! You really are an awesome photographer!! I'm very proud of you cousin!! Keep up the great work!! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures you took... they are probably gorgeous!!

Anonymous said...

Great job Steph! I'm very proud of you! Love you, Mom

Angela Oldaker said...

I absolutely love the picture for which you won the Accolade. Good job!! :)