In February, at the very last minute (like the night entries closed!), I threw a bunch of images into an international photo competition by Shoot & Share... purely for fun! This is a MASSIVE competition... there were 225,000+ entries over 25 categories... from photographers from 149 different countries around the globe!!! 225,000! That's a lot of photos! I had ZERO expectations... it's just more entertaining to be a bit invested in something like this rather than to just watch from afar.
So then 10 rounds of voting happened... with tens of thousands of photos eliminated after each round. And each time, I was beyond surprised to see some of my photos survive the elimination and pop up in the new round! I feel a bit weird sharing successes sometimes... but these are also successes for our awesome clients, so I'm excited to let you know that FIVE of my photos were finalists in their categories!! And one even made it to 8th place!! Crazy? Yes. Totally unexpected? Yes.
So give a massive high-5 to our awesome bride, Nicky, and her hilarious Grandad, for this shot that got 8th PLACE in the 'Just the Guests' category!!
Photographing the guests at the end of the ceremony is one of my favourite moments on a wedding day... people are throwing happiness around like confetti and emotions are bubbling over, and we get to sneakily capture it!
So then 10 rounds of voting happened... with tens of thousands of photos eliminated after each round. And each time, I was beyond surprised to see some of my photos survive the elimination and pop up in the new round! I feel a bit weird sharing successes sometimes... but these are also successes for our awesome clients, so I'm excited to let you know that FIVE of my photos were finalists in their categories!! And one even made it to 8th place!! Crazy? Yes. Totally unexpected? Yes.
So give a massive high-5 to our awesome bride, Nicky, and her hilarious Grandad, for this shot that got 8th PLACE in the 'Just the Guests' category!!
Photographing the guests at the end of the ceremony is one of my favourite moments on a wedding day... people are throwing happiness around like confetti and emotions are bubbling over, and we get to sneakily capture it!
When I think about Tamsyn and Iain's wedding day... this image filled with pure joy sums it up for me!
It got 43rd out of nearly 8000 photos in the 'Emotion and Excitement' category! There were sooooo many incredible photographs in this competition, so it was really exciting to see some of our couples making it into the Top 10, the Top 100, and also the 'Best of the Best' round, where all wedding categories were judged against each other! I also had a lot of images placing in the top 10% of all images, so I was really stoked with how far they all went!
It got 43rd out of nearly 8000 photos in the 'Emotion and Excitement' category! There were sooooo many incredible photographs in this competition, so it was really exciting to see some of our couples making it into the Top 10, the Top 100, and also the 'Best of the Best' round, where all wedding categories were judged against each other! I also had a lot of images placing in the top 10% of all images, so I was really stoked with how far they all went!
Shoot & Share is "a global community of photographers who are focusing their gifts, knowledge, compassion, and talent on others". I love what it stands for and I really hope that is reflected in the way we do what we do!
And finally these 3 images were all finalists! Just quietly, I'm mostly just proud that wee Eli's All Black thighs made it to computer screens all around the world... haha. Ain't nothing little about them ;)
And finally these 3 images were all finalists! Just quietly, I'm mostly just proud that wee Eli's All Black thighs made it to computer screens all around the world... haha. Ain't nothing little about them ;)
To check out all of the other winners, and to be inspired by hundreds of thousands of images, check out the results here! But trust me, you will need a lot of time ;)