I dig around every now and then for inspiration and one place that I can guarantee to be wowed is the WPJA’s quarterly results. This contest is open to all WPJA photographers, each allowed at least 1 free entry per contest. I enter about 10-15 images per contest. From the handful of photog buds that I know who are also members, I can promise you that they all enter the maximum allowable number of images per year, 60 per photographer… Take a few thousand members worldwide, you can imagine how many images are being entered each contest. Every quarter, the results absolutely blow my mind and make me wonder why I’m actually getting paid to produce some of the images that I sell, there that good!

Anyway, there is one category labeled “Silhouettes, Shadows, & Good Light“. Take a peek here and count how many images where a slave flash attributed to the accolade. Its at least 50% folks!

 

***Update****

 

Malaysian Photographer Patrick Low from Exes Studio, has this submission for you….WPJA Silhouettes, Shadows, & good light # 1 winner

Patrick Writes:

I, Patrick Low have been a professional photographer for the past 18 years and am very honoured to be the first Malaysian winner of the prestigious WPJA award for the second quarter of 2007.

However, I am not in this business merely to win awards and to make a living. I do it because I live and breathe it. To me, photography is not my work but is instead my passion. It drives me to out do myself every time and forces me to always shoot a better photo than my last.

I am a huge fan of artistic / conceptual images and I believe that mood and composition plays an utterly important part in achieving this design direction of mine. For me, I don’t just shoot a photo, I try to feel it and I let my imagination run free. I do not lock myself within a certain constrain of what the general public or my peers expects of me and I do not really conform to the conventional. I believe this are the virtues that sets me apart from the rest as far as my work is concern.

To me, in order to become a successful photographer, it is not just about the skills that one possesses and competitive pricing for one’s services. I believe attitude plays an important role as well. I honestly do not think that one should just simply complete one’s job and call it a day. One must take the time out to thoroughly understand one’s clients and also their needs. We must understand that it is not ethical to force one’s ideas down the client’s throat regardless of how talented one thinks that he or she may be. Therefore the keyword here is balance because being able to make your client and yourself happy at the same time on the same project is a priceless feeling and that to me, is the ultimate achievement.

Like all other pros, I do not work alone. I usually shoot with 2 other photographers. In our business, I strongly believe that team work is very important. I am a firm believer that in order for your team to take care of you, you must first take care of them. I do this by helping my junior photographers hone their skills and develop their own ideas and approaches towards photography.

My winning shot of Eddie and Kelly was taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5mm f2.8 (fisheye) with a little side light filled in.

The groom, Eddie has earlier informed that there will be snow falls during his and his bride’s entrance to the ballroom. With this at hand, I arrived early on that day to scout out the surroundings in an attempt to find the prefect shooting location. I feel more confident this way for I am the sort that leaves very little to chance.

The shot happened when Kelly and Eddie marched in through the entrance. To my surprise, the ballroom’s spot lights have made the artificially sprayed show looked more realistic than I have imagined it to be. In order to capture the snow’s movement, I lowered the shutter’s speed to 1/15 and shot from the bottom up without looking at the view finder.

For this win, I would like to sincerely thank Kelly and Eddie for allowing me the opportunity to capture such an amazing moment in their lives. But most importantly, I would like to thank the couple’s friends who wholeheartedly sprayed the artificial snow at the event with undying passion for without them this shot would have never been.

Thanks & regards,
Patrick

wow Patrick, I love your passion here man….we should take a passion lesson from YOU!

 

Austin Texas Photographer, Jake Holt was awarded 2nd place for this beaut:

 

Jake writes:
This image is one of my favorite personal examples of how to make the best of a photographically challenging situation. I was shooting this wedding in Rosenberg, Texas, and as I walked into this huge rural Texas reception venue I was greeted by the following:

- An absolutely cavernous main room
- A very high, black ceiling
- Dark blue walls
- A combination of tungsten and, horrors, fluorescent light

I learned my lesson a few years ago while shooting in a very similar venue on the Texas coast - mixed tungsten/fluorescent lights and high, dark ceilings call for something much more than an on-camera strobe can provide. I immediately started going through my options, trying to brainstorm a way to create something interesting for the couple. Any kind of bouncing was obviously out of the question, due to the dark walls and ceiling. My next thought was to put a remote strobe stage left to add some dynamic side-lighting to the toasts that would inevitably be taking place on stage. However, as the toasts commenced, I saw the opportunity to take this shot to the next level. I turned the flash towards where I wanted to shoot from, stepped back to include the celebrating guests and rambunctious children, and shot directly into the flash throughout the toasting - this photo was my favorite of the bunch! This technique accomplished exactly what I was going for - to take a cavernous venue with unflattering lighting and create a dynamic, compelling photograph.

Tech. info: Shot with a Canon 5D and 17-40L - the off camera strobe was a Canon 580 EX triggered by an ST-E2 transmitter. Exposure was 1/60 at f5.6, ISO 800, and the was set to Manual and 1/16th power. The 580 was attached to a wooden railing via a Bogen 2936 clip clamp.”

 

Sweet shot Jake… Congrats!

 

Another one of my fav’s was from Dallas Texas Photog Kym Skiles, from F8 Studios.

Kym Writes:
Oh how I love cigars at weddings! This particular image was created at Randa and Trevor’s wedding held at Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, Texas on a night that was beyond humid. The smoke was hanging extra heavy in the air when I encountered these two gentlemen enjoying themselves on the deck during the reception. I love the humor in this image and the bit of mystery with the hidden face behind the smoke.

The technical stuff; Canon 5D with 16-35mm lens set at 28mm. ISO 640, f5.0 and 1/50th exposure. I always shoot receptions with both on-camera flash and a remote flash on a monopod triggered by PocketWizard held by an assistants. I had my assistant stand behind these two men with the remote flash at 1/32nd power placed behind the guy on frame right’s head and slightly feathered towards the guy on frame left.

I have to give credit to my friend David Tsai of Life Uncommon Photography for opening my eyes to the possibilities of backlighting smoke like this. I use this technique all the time

 

I think you have a sweet motivation behind the moment here Kym….A new one for my bag of tricks Thanks for the submission!

 

I am a firm believer that creative use of light will definitely give you some award winners, coupled with excellent photoshop techniques. WPJA photographers have also been submitting images to the Artistic Guild of the WPJA, a branch of the WPJA where entries are actually awarded on the photographers ability to artistic enhance the image. Images in this contest show PS techniques such as toning, cloning, textures, and other creative editing techniques. . This quarter’s Reception category has one KILLER frame, by North Carolina photographer, Shane Snider. Shane scored a first place with this bad boy!

 

Shane writes:

Being able to cull a clean and compelling image out of a chaotic dance floor environment can be difficult. With this image, I wanted to show the beauty of the space, but get rid of some distractions that were bugging me. I had already photoshopped the image in my mind prior to the shot. The space itself was distracting. While beautiful, it had dark, wooden walls. There was a band in the background. Normally, I love to add live bands into a dance shot. But here, I wanted a clean and intimate look.

My rig was pretty simple. I had two strobes firing via pocket wizard. One Photogenic on a 11-foot lightstand was placed behind the couple and to the right and was firing at 1/4 power bare bulb. I had a Nikon SB-800 firing on the other side of the couple on another 11-foot stand also firing at 1/4 power. I knew both lightsources would be in the frame, but I wanted to add some more elements, so I backed way off to include the cool lights on the ceiling.

In post production, I realized I had way too many elements competing for attention. So, some things had to go. I cloned out the burst from the Photogenic. I burned out the band in the background. I burned out the detail in the ceiling. I wanted to get to a point where there were just a handful of elements floating in a sea of darkness. The next thing to go was the color. I thought a nice sepia tone would bring back some of the warmth l lost when I burned the elements out.

In the end, I thought the photoshopped version told a more compelling and romantic story about space and relationships. It is very drastic Photoshop work, but I think it comes across as simple and clean. It compels you to follow the different elements. It’s almost mathematic in design. Your mind draws these imaginary lines from subject to subject. While there was a lot of work involved getting to the final image, I think it’s still an honest portrayal of the couple’s first dance.

I did have some help on the forums with constructive criticism that helped me decide to clone out a bouquet of flowers under the light on the right. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’m still learning the ins and outs of off-camera flash. With this image, I pre-visualized what I wanted to do with the lights and how I wanted to light the couple. Then I backed off to find other elements to add to the lighting effects.

 

This image is super sexy man, great great stuff!

Moral of the story, Our speedlights off camera are winning us awards Anybody else out there score any awards with your off camera flashes? Tell us about them!

Cheers!
matt

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Photographers, Shane Snider, Kym Skiles, Jake Holt, patrick low. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.