18 Oct 2015

Thank you Roger ‪#‎Federer‬ and the 5 judges. After some nervous moments, I have today received a Silver Distinction Award from APPA (Australian Professional Photographer Awards); a national award not only judging the quality of a digital image but each image has to be carefully selected, processed, edited, colour profiled and printed, not to mention paper selection and construction of the matted print. Then it was packed in a special purpose print case before being shipped. On the day of judging, the print will be judged and critiqued by a panel of 5 renowned judges under a reference lighting condition with live audience, in the judging hall, from around the country. They even have live streaming so the entrants can watch from anywhere in the world. A very stringent, transparent and expertly coordinated process.

Sharing some of the comments of the judges: “triumphal toast”, “legs nicely framing the abstract, the shadow”, “pano crop is quite unusual for tennis shots”, “love the lines and design elements”, “symbolism”, “identify him without identifying him”, “a great generic tennis player representation shot”, “the crop is what the photographer has designed to do”, “documentary photo so usable in stock”.

I have also received a Silver Award for an image of Rafael ‪#‎Nadal‬. Very satisfied with the results as this is my first entry to APPA smile emoticon

20 Oct 2015

Thank you my dear friends for your support and well wishes. Here are my 4 prints that I’ve entered into the APPA (Australian Professional Photographer Awards). Luckily I’ve received a Silver Distinction Award and a Silver Award. A total score of 321 (320 is the cutoff for finalists, but my portfolio wasn’t selected). 2.5 merit points toward my Associateship (my ultimate goal is Master in Photography. Wish me luck!). My take away from this national award is that there are many talented photographers who are capable of crafting some very inspiring images and prints. So I want to get there and become one of them. Congratulations to all award and category winners! I know how hard it is and how much effort you all have put into this. Thank you AIPP too for organising such a wonderful platform for us to express our creativity. I have seen some where saying many regarded APPA as the finest photography competition in the world and I totally agree smile emoticon

An anecdote about my entry that I want to share. I did well prepare for this year’s award and comfortably submitted my 4 entries on 10 Sept as the deadline being 26 Sept and I had an overseas family / working trip on 14 Sept. On 13 Sept I received an email from AIPP Awards Chairman of Jurors that my submission could not be successfully validated citing non-compliance with the “same subject” rule. 3 of my entries were of the same subject. This was my first time entry and I interpreted this as “same subject at the same event/session” as mine were taken from different years, different tournaments, different arenas, different continents; but of the same subject. I was so devastated as there was no way for me to resubmit 2 new prints as I would have a 10am flight to catch the next day. To select new prints that I truly like and have them properly printed and matted will take at least 2 whole days.

That same day, my little daughter fell ill with temperature. It was in that evening I decided she was not fit to travel and had our flights postponed for 1 day. That still won’t allow me the time to do fresh prints. I scrambled and resorted to my “rejected” prints; which were the ones I had prepared but did not think they would score highly so I did not submit. Without a print case which was already on way to Melbourne, I improvised with bubble wraps and posted them on 14 Sept, ahead of our 15 Sept flight.

It turned out that one of my “rejects” scored the highest with the Silver Distinction. Would the 2 original prints score even higher? No one knows (well, until I submit one of them for the 2016 award). But I’m seriously very gracious and joyful to win the 2 national awards with the overall results.

‪#‎AIPP‬ ‪#‎APPA‬ ‪#‎wins‬