“SWPP Members Choice General Photographer of the Year” – What a great way to start 2012!

The Second week in January each year sees the biggest event in the UK and European Professional Photographers’ Calendar – The Societies Annual Convention and Awards at the Novotel Hotel in London.

This is a week-long event, consisting of numerous Business and Photography masterclasses, a very busy trade show, and culminates in the Societies Annual Awards presentation. Keynote speakers at the show this year were the immensely talented Adam Alex and Nick Ghionis of XSight Studios.

My wife Morag and I attended the full week of the show, and I was very honoured to be invited to speak at the event this year on the subject of Marketing a Wedding Photography Business. With it being my first time speaking at the Convention I wasn’t sure how much of a turnout I would have, but fortunately the room was completely packed and it was standing room only – people were even sitting in the aisles to hear my presentation, so I was absolutely delighted.

As usual it was a fantastic social event and we met many friends old and new and it was great to catch up with everyone and compare notes. And Drink. The odd cocktail or three.

During the week one of the big events is the judging of the Annual Print competition – the standard of this competition is extremely high and attracts entries from all round the world. I was therefore delighted to gain three Merit awards and see my images on the exhibition stand at the end of the week. It was the first time I’d entered the print competition, so I was absolutely delighted with the result.

Here are the three images that gained Merit Awards:-

Sunday night was the big Awards presentation and I knew I was in the final selection for “Members Choice General Photographer of the Year” – the previous year I had won the “Members Choice Wedding Photographer of the Year”, so I was delighted to be in the final round again this year – however there were over 50 other photographers in the final round of judging – including my own Daughter Nicola – so competition was fierce. Nicola runs her own family portrait business called Bumps Babies Beyond specialising in photographing New Borns in the first weeks of their life.

So imagine our surprise when it was announced that the voting for the Members Choice General Photographer had resulted in a three way tie, with two of the winners being myself and my daughter Nicola! It was a very proud moment to walk up onstage alongside my Daughter to collect the award. The other recipient of the award was South African Photographer Alec Davies.

Of course, Nicola couldn’t help but try and upstage me by dropping the award to much hilarity – fortunately a moment captured forever on YouTube LOL

Nicola’s winning photograph (shown below) was of little Layla who was just over one week old and had went on quite the journey all the way from the South of England just to have Nicola photograph her after her Mum had seen a Dundee friend’s newborn images.? Nicola said “The pressure was on with this session purely for the fact that mum Hayley and little Layla had travelled so far and of course I wanted to do my very best, so for this image to be the one to receive the award makes it all the more special for me.”

My own photograph was the result of a challenge by another photographer to come up with an image that evoked the work of the great George Hurrell, who photographed the great Hollywood icons of the 1940’s.

Myself and Nicola’s Winning Images in the Members Choice General Photographer of the Year:-

Myself (that’s the handsome Dude on the right) and Nicola (the one that shares her good looks from the handsome Dude on the right) being presented with the award by Ben Jones (not the handsome Dude on the right)

So a great start to 2012 – a year which is looking to be just as busy and exciting as last year. If we’re photographing your Wedding this year – we can’t wait to work with you to create some fantastic wedding images.