Here are the images that placed for me this time round (in chronological order):

From the Best of Wedding Photography site:

A few times each year, our editorial staff submits a list of outstanding photographers to the BOWP Review Board, who then vote separately on whom to invite . . . We are the premier invitation-only association for the world’s top wedding photographers. Best of Wedding Photography employs a unique system of peer-review to ensure that membership standards remain uncommonly high. We look for photographers who are leaders in the field – both in terms of the quality and style of imagery they produce and their level of success and recognition by brides, fellow photographers, and others in the wedding industry.

Best of Wedding Photography has capped their membership at only 350 of the best photographers in the world, so Jessica and I are really happy to have been accepted.

Although this is the summer contest, the deadline for submissions was earlier in the year when wedding “season” up here had only just started, so I am really happy to have done so well. I placed in these categories: Wedding Ceremony, Wedding Reception, Emotional Impact, Bride Portrait, Bridal Party Portrait, Engagement Portrait, Pure Art.

Here are my placing images:

What does this mean? Firstly, I’m not going to show up to photograph your wedding in a tie-dye shirt. Well, probably not. Most of the aspects that were investigated in the accreditation process involve things that happen behind the scenes in our business. For example, we are almost entirely paperless and offer a very convenient online contract system as well as other easy electronic processes. Also, our building’s cooling system is very environmentally-friendly—and effective! There is a huge list of things that are involved for us, but I want to focus on the things you’ll see. Really what this means for our clients is simply more options. We have introduced very stylish eco-friendly print and album choices—and of course digital options—and will continue to build upon them as more become available. We have not discontinued any of our other album and print lines, because our goal is to open up more choices to those people who want them.

If anyone would like more info, feel free to contact me.

Anyways, I’m happy to say that I received eight Accolades of Excellence awards for the images I submitted. Yay! Here are the images below, roughly in chronological order, with the most recent ones at the bottom.

That’s all.

Here is a quote from their website:

“The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers is an organization of the best wedding photographers in the world. It was created by professional photographers to raise the standards of the wedding photography profession.

When you hire an ISPWP member, you can be sure they have passed a rigorous application process and are recognized by their peers to be at the top of their field.”

Frankly, I think the ISPWP board were just swayed by my rugged good looks, but either way, yay for us! We are currently the only photography studio in Lethbridge to be accepted into the ISPWP and one of only three in Alberta.

Since I didn’t submit any of our photos myself, it is interesting to see the images of ours that their judges chose. A big criteria for them was whether or not an image looked like it was distinctly wedding-y.

Their website says: “What we ultimately looked for was . . . is this a great photo or a great wedding photo? Unfortunately this meant that some incredible photographs did not make the cut, because they could have been anywhere, not necessarily at a wedding.”

This is kind of funny for me to read—and I don’t mean that sarcastically!—because I often deliberately distance myself from creating images that look wedding-y. This is especially true with the more fashion-based ideas that I come up with. I sometimes get inspiration from music photography and movie posters and I try to create a similar sort of commercial or cinematic vibe to my wedding photography—something that looks larger than life and out of the ordinary.

Anyways, I thought I’d comment on the images they chose to give a bit of a story behind each photo. So, for the first time on the blog I present to you: Captions!

This image was tricky to capture! It was taken on a small yacht on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna and the poor girl was sea-sick from the rocking of the boat. I was crouched up the very front of the boat holding a flash in one hand and my camera in the other, trying to frame the shot without getting any clutter in the background, or going blind from having the sun in the viewfinder, or falling over the side. I have two images of this setup and this is one of them. It pays to get it right the first time.

While I love going overboard (ha ha) to get cool-looking portraits, the emotions of the wedding day are what really hooked me in to being a wedding photographer. There are few days in someone’s life where they so honestly open up in front of their friends and family. I love being a part of that. This image was taken at a reception at the University of Lethbridge “Zoo” ballrooms. It has almost entirely black walls and is one of the trickiest places I’ve photographed in to really make the lighting look natural and good.

The couple asked for a photo of the bridesmaids carrying the groom and I thought it could be fun, so we set it up. They had a struggle keeping him up though, and this is where they started to drop him. That made them laugh and they slipped even more. I have about half a dozen images in this sequence, showing him up and steady to all the way down. I shot close up from a low angle to really get into the action.

Awww! Aren’t these kids so cute? Check out their matching green wedding flip-flops! This was during the group formals. I always try to catch interaction and emotional moments, even during the quickly set up images of the wedding day.

This is from the same wedding as the previous photo. The couple requested something that showed Lethbridge’s high-level bridge in the background and I wanted a different angle than is typical. We had to hike a little bit to get to this location, but I’ve still not seen anyone do quite the same shot.

This was one of the wildest and most fun receptions we’ve ever photographed. The bride and groom had a male belly-dancer for entertainment and he grabbed them and got them in on the act. Soon enough he had just about everyone up and was teaching them his moves, with some really hilarious consequences. Although 95% of the images on this blog are taken by me, this photo was taken by my very talented assistant photographer, Jessica. Kudos to her; it’s an awesome moment.