WPPI 8x10 Competition

The WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) 8x10 competition was held in June. I submitted 12 images for this competition and I am pleased to announce that I received an Accolade of Excellence for 1 image. It is an amazing honor to receive this award. There were over 900 entries in this 8x10 competition!

Anyway, here is the press release for this award if you want to read it.

The winning image was taken at Luther and CarLisa Johnson's wedding on June 1, 2008. Here is the winning image "Baby...Don't Cry."


Thank you to everyone who has supported me through these competitions. They are very stressful but can also be very rewarding when others see worth in your images.

Steph

Press Release!

I was thrilled to look in my e-mail today and find a press release from WPPI for my Accolade of Excellence. Reading through it made me smile and made me feel great about my accomplishment. I am not one to toot my own horn, but I was told that if I don't do it...no one will. So here I am...toot...toot!! LOL

Anyway..here is the press release (You can click on it to see it bigger! LOL). I forwarded it onto the Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer, The Canton Repository, The Suburbanite, The West Side Leader and Today's Bride Magazine. I would be so excited if it got published by any of them!



Thanks for sharing my joy with me!
Steph

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