Shiny like silver.....

It was about two or so years ago that I sat in the lounge room of Steven Murray from Creative Image Photography and stared at his wall of prints, some labled with shiny little silver award stickers.
I was there to book him as our wedding photographer and was in awe of his awards and I decided that I too wanted to, one day produce award winning images.

Fast forward all those years to the day Colin and I went up to Stromlo to take our own self portraits, the first photos we had of ourselves since Steven had photographed our wedding... now of all the people we could have run into up there...we ran into Steven! We chatted for some time but as I left he yelled back "AIPP Print awards are in 3 weeks, you should start taking some shots"!

After considering my chances for a week or so, sifting through the thousands of images I have taken over the years I settled on a couple I could enter, then having no idea about requirements, the level of work submitted and all the little secret tips others had, I shipped my mounted prints off to sydney. Within two weeks I had prepared, printed, mounted and shipped my images off to the biggest competition in the industry, the Australian Institute of Proffesional Photographers NSW Print Awards.

Fast forward another week later to Sunday and I was sitting in Sydney preparing for the most nerve wrecking experience I have ever sat trough. They were, however amazing, I have never been so inspired. Being there to see the calibre of work, the ideas, the creativity, for me were the most amazing two days I have spent sitting on a chair!
To stand side by side in a competition with people who inspire me, was amazing.

And...of course, the fact I walked away with my own two silver awards was incredible. I can now hang my own shiny little silver awards on my wall for all to see.
Thank you Steven for yelling those words to me, its all your fault lol!

Here are my two award winning prints.