Back From The UK

Well, I’ve fallen a bit behind on my blogging lately and realized that I never really mentioned something BIG that happened to me earlier this year!

I had the opportunity to speak in London at the Societies’ 2014 convention- which was a blast. The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers is the top photography organization in the UK – bringing together top-notch photographers from all over the world. It was truly an honor to be surrounded by such talented artists! I brought my wife and kids and we had an incredible time exploring this fascinating city.

One of the highlights that I WASN’T expecting, was to be a winner in their photographic competition. Over the past year, I had entered several images in their online photography competition and was thrilled

to find that I was a finalist for the monochrome category. At the Awards Banquet, I practically fell out of my chair when they called my name for Monochrome Photographer of the Year. I even got a kick-butt trophy!

The Image

The image that won for me was a self portrait from my 40@Forty Project. It was created in the parking garage of a museum in Indianapolis.

It has always been one of my favorite images from the series, so I thought I would give it a try in the SWPP competition and see how it would fare. The strong composition and the moody, mysterious feel really gave it some nice impact. I had no idea it would do so well! Honestly, I was honored to just be one of the finalists. Winning was just icing on the cake!

After they called out my name, they read the judges’ comments as I was walking up to the stage. Unfortunately, my mind was spinning the whole time and I completely missed all the comments.

The Video

The rest of the evening was pretty much a blur. Luckily, there is video evidence of the evening. They had a crew filming the awards dinner and got several of us to lip-sync a song for a music video they put together. If you watch closely, you can spot me a few times- including a brief clip of me walking to the front to accept my award. If you are in the mood for some bad lip-syncing….then enjoy! Award Dinner Video

The Trophy

Definitely one of the coolest trophies I have ever won. The globe on top spins-which is wonderfully entertaining when you are sitting at a table eating dinner! 🙂

Many thanks to all the Societies members for being so warm and welcoming. I hope to see you all again very soon!