Recently in Print Competition Category
Well tonight’s the night! My tuxedo is out of the closet and fitted, and my wife and I went out and bought the most beautiful gown. She looks stunning!
Anybody who’s anybody and into photography in Houston is going to be there. The annual Professional Photographers Guild of Houston is sold out and is sure to be a great party! It’s a Mardi Gras theme this year.
The PPGH is THE source for professional photographers in Houston. If you’re a professional photographer, then you are a member or thinking about becoming one. Currently the PPGH, a subsidiary of the Professional Photographers of America, is the largest chapter in the nation.
Each month there is a new speaker at the monthly meeting, and at each meeting members bring in prints to be judged by their peers. Different categories can be entered into each month, each category defining a different discipline. As you can guess, I regularly compete in the wedding side of the competition. This includes bridal portraits, illustrative images, wedding albums, etc.
In 2004 I won Wedding Album of the Year, and I haven’t really competed since then with the birth of my twins in 2005. This year though, I went all out. Even if I don’t win, I do have the education and the personal satisfaction of growing as an artist.
Awards for 2007 will be given out at tonight’s gala. There will be a “best of” in each category and “photographer of the year”. It is my understanding that photographer of the year is awarded to the photographer that has received the most ribbons from competitions in the same year.
Normally I wouldn’t write about an event like this until after the event had passed, thus saving face in the case that I didn’t do to well in the results.
But I'm just to excited….. Keep your fingers crossed! (hope I didn’t just jinx myself)
Houston Wedding Photography - Aric C. Hoek, the Master of Shadows
713-524-3303
Show Your Support!
Subscribe to the blog
Receive The Weekly Escape
There are multiple categories that you can enter prints in each month. This month I am entering into the Electronic Imaging category with a before and after entitled Hearts On Fire. The second entry is call The American Dream and is being turned into the Wedding category.
Wish me luck!
Houston Wedding Photography - Aric C. Hoek, the Master of Shadows
713-524-3303
Use the Subscribe Me button to make sure you never miss a story. Be sure to tell your friends about us!
Show Your Support!
The votes are in and two of my four entries scored high enough to earn merits! The two images that scored the highest were Heaven on Earth (the trees) and Kiss Me Here, Kiss Me Now (Paris).
I can guess why the remaining two images did not score as well. If you have ever taken a basic photography you will be taught that for an image to be considered “good” there must be visible detail in the shadow and highlight areas of the image. These criteria must fall into the minds of the judges in order to give some level of continuity.
Now, if you know my work, then you know I like my images to be a bit on the dark side. In fact, the use of shadows is a key element in my images. So, it really is no surprise to me that the remaining two images did not score as well.
So the question becomes, should I conform or should I continue to produce what I like? I think from now on, when I submit entries to a photography contest, I will submit half of the entries to meet all of the text book definitions on what good image should be, and the other half will be printed precisely to my own standards. Nice and dark.
Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303
Use the Subscribe Me button to make sure you never miss a story. Be sure to tell your friends about us!
It’s Monday morning at 6am and I am excited to be in the studio already. When I leave my house this early in the morning, I get to the studio so much quicker and I am in a much better mood that if I had been fighting traffic all the way here. The trek only took 21 minutes from door to door today.
This morning I am working on entering four prints into a statewide competition through a professional photographic organization I recently joined, the Texas Professional Photographers Association. While their website is rather lacking, the quality of membership is really nice.
I wanted to share the images that I will be entering into the competition with you, but before I do I need to say something first. I made a promise to myself that I would never enter in two of the images that I am submitting into a competition. They are two of my favorite images, and I don’t want them to score badly. I know that I just wouldn’t take it to well.
Well, I know what you are saying. “Get over it!” I agree. It is time for me to start competing on a national level. I have this crazy idea, a dream, of becoming an educator of photography to other professional photographers, and my first step is to expose other photographers to my work through competitions. After all, some unknown no-name photographer just showing up on the national photographic scene from out of nowhere wanting to speak at national conventions is going to get laughed at. Well, maybe not laughed at, but at the very least will be given a quick no.
I have to start somewhere, so my goal is to enter in these four images in a state wide contest. If they score well, then I will resubmit them into this years national judging for the PPA, of which I am a member as well. If they do not score well on a state level, then I will need to decide if I want to try and improve the images through Photoshop and then resubmit them nationally, or just chose all new images to be submitted instead.
If you know my website, then you already know these images. They are very special to me, and represent different milestones in my professional photographic career.
Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303
Use the Subscribe Me button to make sure you never miss a story. Be sure to tell your friends about us!
