It’s almost that time of year again for the annual WPPI Convention. For those who don’t know, WPPI is the largest organization of wedding and portrait photographers. Members are from all 6 inhabited continents. Almost all of my good wedding photographer friends, here in Calgary, are members. Last year was the first time Ryan and I had attended this convention. We were both blown away at the size and met so many awesome photographers. One of the things that really interested me was the print competition. Competition are something I always strive to enter in. The only way to measure yourself and to go up against the best in the industry.
I really wanted to enter some prints last year, but I didn’t have a sniff about what the judges look for, or even how to make a nice print. I learned a print competition is a completely different ball game than entering a digital image file. I sat in the judging room for hours each day, watching the judges talk about about each print that went up. I learned when it comes to WPPI’s award of excellence print competition, it matters what inks, paper and mattes you use. Some of the detail in the prints that scored high were amazing. I needed mine to look like that.
My good friend Wei, at photobolic, helped me this year printing my 8 entries. Wei won a few accolades last year, so he knows what he is doing. One of the toughest things to do was to choose which images to enter and in which categories. I shot literally thousands of images this year and many of them I love dearly. But I had to really narrow it down, as it is not cheap to enter these things. Plus, I only wanted to showcase my BEST. After much deliberation, I picked 8 images I felt had the best chance according to what I saw last year and the criteria.
After we printed the images, I got them matted at the Paul Kuhn gallery in downtown Calgary. When I picked them up I had the biggest smile on my face that I could not wipe off. I am very happy with my decision with the 8 images. I sent them off to WPPI on the weekend and the next time I will see them, it will be in the judging room. At least I hope to catch my print being judged, as it could happen at any time. I know you are probably sitting there saying, well let’s see the images you chose. I decided for now, I will not reveal the images until after WPPI for I don’t want to jinx anything and show my competitors what I entered. All the images have been featured here on the blog, if you are wondering. Of course I will let you all know how it goes.
The convention is held March 4th – 11th in Las Vegas. For those who are going, see you there. I can’t wait to catch up with some friends from all over the world!
