We’ve just returned from the high of two days at the AIPP’s 2011 NSW Professional Photography Awards, and what a rewarding experience it was! I (Josh) had the pleasure of working behind the scenes this year, preparing the prints to be judged. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore and admire the work of some amazing photographers from all over state (and the ACT).

I entered a small selection of prints for judging this year, mainly in the wedding category (of course). I was excited and honoured to walk away with one silver distinction and two silver awards. As far as I can tell, this year I was the most awarded photographer in the Newcastle region, which is such an honour. This was my second year entering, with no awards the first time round, but it was a chance to learn and soak up some experience. Giuls and I have spent the last year working hard and honing our skills and our success at these awards is a great tangible expression of how far we’ve come!

I’ll share the award winning images with you at the end of this posting, but first, I’ll answer a question you might be considering, ‘Why should I care about photography awards?’ The answer is pretty simple, competency, skill and artistry! By putting work forward to be judged by experienced and gifted peers a photographer is showing their commitment to excellence in these areas. This means when you hire a photographer with this kind of experience you can be confident in their skill, their competency and their ability to capture the story of the moment, in short you can expect their experience to result in great wedding photos for their clients… which could possibly be you!

During the time I’ve spent improving my photography by attending workshops, handling prints and observing print judging, I’ve learnt there’s basically three parts to a great print:

• It captures the story! A good print can convey the emotion, the intimacy, the romance, the fun… of a moment in time, it provides a fluid memory, not just a static picture.
• The actual image must show good photographic technique. The image must be well framed and composed, exposed correctly, sharp and not blurry and so on.
• Lastly, the digital image must hold up as a good print; a skill that is disappearing in our digital era, but still so important. This is where the (sometimes maligned) Photoshop comes in, but it’s not about butchering an image, rather the application of techniques similar to those from the darkroom of film days. It’s about extracting the best quality an image has to offer, perfecting not reinventing an image.
  Of course, the translation a good digital image into a great print relies heavily, on you guessed it, the printing. We’ve recently brought our printing in-studio, providing us with the opportunity to get creative, and it’s already giving us great results… including compliments on the quality of our prints from the ACT Wedding Photographer of the Year.

When all three come together to give a beautiful image – that is what is then rewarded by the judges with an award.

And these are the three areas that I’ve been putting my effort

Of course, these are the bare bones needed for a great print, but great photography is about translating these ideas into amazing prints. It’s all about the work that goes into making something appear effortless, in essence, it’s what the judges are looking for.

Thanks for indulging us by reading so far, and now, as promised, our winning images. Feel free to leave your comments below.

After a storm drove everyone else out of the Newcastle baths, we raced out with Jo and Damien in a break in the weather like wedding photography ninjas and got some great photos, it’s nice to say, the judges thought so too.

This print of Miriam and Andrew (whose wedding is coincidently featured in the current edition of the Hunter Valley Wedding Planner) generated a lively discussion amongst the judges, was the story captured real or posed? The answer, absolutely real. A simple moment, real expressions and ‘hey presto’, not just silver, but silver distinction.

Then there’s Max, who lazily wandered out to the front of the church and plonked down with his colouring kit. Completely unawares, the budding artist stole the moment (and silver for us.)

(thanks to Jess for editing this post… you’ll be hearing more from her shortly, we hope.)

It’s been an absolutely crazy year for us here at Living Light Photography since taking it on full-time 15 months ago. Here’s a little snapshot of where we are wrapping up before Christmas.

• 50 weddings photographed (and still loving every moment),
• 500 fans on Facebook,
• (and in breaking news,) wet ink on a lease agreement for a brand new studio!

So, to celebrate these milestones, we’re going have a little last-minute Christmas giveaway. Are you ready?

THE GIVEAWAY

The prize will be one of our very first limited edition art landscapes, titled “Isolation”. It’s valued at $600, and printed on the highest quality canvas at a size of 30 x 12 inches. You can see it below (obviously it won’t have the watermark on it). Trust me, it looks awesome!

We’ll also have a prize open only to our past and future clients, a $150 Living Light Photography voucher. Keep it for yourself or use it as a gift!

AND if we get to 750 fans before we draw the prize, we will also give away a $250 Living Light Photography voucher.

PLUS, if we get to 1000 fans on or before the 23rd December we will give away a massive 40 x 16 inch version of “Isolation” as well! This baby is valued at $800. So to increase the prize pool – please suggest us to your friends!

HOW TO ENTER

You’ll first need to be a liker of the Living Light Photography page on Facebook (not just this post). Then post a comment on this competition page. Tell us what you’d do or where you’d hang the landscape if you won.

You’ll have the option of posting the post and your comment to your Facebook wall, and we’d appreciate it if you did. Please also suggest our page to your friends if you like our photos (the link to do so is under the logo on the page), as we’ll be adding in the other prizes if we hit 750 and 1000 fans.

We’ll draw the winners on December 23rd at 3 PM, with our Living Light Photography camera durability tester Thomas drawing them from a hat. If you’re local to Newcastle, you’ll be able to pick it up before Christmas (gift idea anyone?). (If you’re not, we’ll post it to you that afternoon, but there’s no guarantees it’ll arrive before the 25th.)

Merry Christmas everyone, and we hope you have a great holiday. See you next year!

Living Light Photography will have a stand in the Concert Hall, around the middle of the room.

We’ll have brand new albums on display, along with some great new products we haven’t offered before. Come on over and say hi!

Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday, and we’re sure Mum would love some family photos, so we’re offering a deal for location portraits. The voucher covers the session, an 8×10 print, plus some extra dollars towards more prints, and no further spending required.

If you’d like to read through full portrait information pack before ordering, please send an enquiry via the contact form and we’ll email it to you.

Vouchers are mailed at no extra cost, or if you’ve left it to the last minute e-vouchers are available which you can print yourself.

This offer is limited to 100 vouchers, vouchers are valid until 30 November 2010.

Click here to purchase your voucher.

I think a belated Happy New Year is in order.

It’s been a bit crazy around here, as we’re getting ready for the Summer at City Hall bridal expo this Sunday the 17th. You’ll find us by heading in the front door and down the stairs to the Banquet Room on the ground floor. There’ll be 108 other exhibitors there, so it’s a BIG day and great opportunity for wedding planning.

After Sunday we’ll get back into the regular routine of looking after you. You’ll get to see James and Kate’s wedding by the end of next week.

You’ll also maybe notice a bit of a change in our logo. It’s the first step towards a whole new website which will be rolled out over the next few months.

Thanks for checking in on us.

What’s in store for the next little while? Well, Bec and Dave’s wedding was last Saturday, and Lauren and Steve’s is this weekend (their e-session will be blogged shortly). In between, I’ve squeezed another engagement shoot, and there’s more yet to come. So much for winter being the quiet season! All these will be posted up in the next while, so keep on visiting the site for more photos.

2008 was a great year for our photography. We shot weddings from Coogee to Port Macquarie, Gunnedah to Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. We got to know some fantastic people and we’re grateful for the chance to enjoy these special days.

Looking forward, we’re planning 2009 to be even better. We don’t plan on sitting still, but rather to keep getting better, to allow people to remember their special moments through great photography.

All the best from us, and we hope you have a great year.

Josh & Giuliana

It’s a wedding every weekend from now until November, when we’ll be taking time off to welcome a new Marshall into the world.

I’ve been busy with engagement sessions ahead of the next few weddings, and they’ll be posted shortly. There’s also been a few small changes to the blog here. In particular, new posts will have much larger images for you to enjoy.

An explosion in the power room at a data center took down around 9,000 servers hosting websites, including this one. There’s a news article about it if you are so inclined.

In any case, we’re back up now, and hopefully everything should be running smoothly.

So this post is just an update with several small bits of news, to let you know I’m still alive.

I am now a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (or AIPP). It’s an important part of showing that I take my obligations to you as customers seriously. I am bound by their code of ethics to maintain high standards in my business and photography.

There’ll be a few posts here in the next few days, as I have some family portraits and concert photos to share with you. I’ll also be digging through my archives that date from before the website, to share some of my favourite photos with you.

Finally, I’ve also added a page for Living Light Photography on Facebook. While there isn’t much there that you can’t find also on this website, if you like what we do, you can become a fan and keep in touch.

The big news today is the addition of the client area. We’ve uploaded a number of our past weddings so that you can see what sort of coverage we provide over the whole day. Note that these images represent what you would obtain in your 4×6 proof album, but you’ll receive many more images on the CD that’s included in the wedding package.

Please bear with us while we get our site up and running. This is particularly if you are using Internet Explorer, as the menus probably look terrible at the moment. The wedding galleries are functional, but there remains some work to be done on the rest of the site.

Check back in a few days, and see how much prettier things are.