My biggest achievement so far… WPJA Worldwide Ranking #5 for 2008!

First of all, thank you very much for all the well-wishes that I’ve received over the past week.  Just last week, I’ve received some really great news from the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) and better late than never, they have ranked the photographers based on the points scored throughout the entire year of 2008 in their quarterly competitions.

I’m very pleased to announce to be been named as one of the top 5 photographers for the year!!!

This is probably the biggest achievement for me so far and unlike the quarterly ranking, this result will be etched permanently on their Hall of Fame here .  It’s an honour to be ranked together with photographers like Shane Snider and Matt Adcock, and I love the works of these guys.

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Good news come in pair and last month, the ranking for the Artistic Guild Wedding Photojournalist Association has placed me overall #10 for 2008 as well.

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Once again, competitions like these are the best form of reassurance that our work are of certain standing in the International scene because they are judged by an overseas panel of substantial credibility.  WPJA in particular look out for the story-telling elements and how well a moment is captured, thus explains the panel of photojournalists and editors, some of whom are Pulitzer prize winners themselves.  In other words, it is far from any of the popularity contests out there that are based solely on voted by the consumers.

Now that I’ve settled down from the Hong Kong photoshoot and clearing up some the backlog, I can finally go celebrate with a bottle of Dai Jin Ju Sake that’s waiting to be opened 🙂

Cheers!

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5 awards from WPJA Q4 2008

5 images from WPJA Q4 2008 to share, competitions getting stiff these days, and we’ve seen more and more photographers from the Asia pacific region being named in the top ranks for this competition.

15th place under Engagement Portrait

This is the second award received by this image, shot right next to Tower Bridge in London in August 2008. Not the kind of images we would expect from this site (where’s Tower Bridge?!?!?!) 🙂

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8th place under Full-frame (B&W)

This is a wild card category that accepts any journalistic style images, so long they’re not cropped and in black-and-white. Shot this while Jean was walking out of the hotel suite, image is a real moment and the difficult thing about these shots is to get it right without giving directions to the subjects /telling them what to do just for the sake of getting the photos. Best part is, she was probably too nervious to even notice me taking this photo as she walked out of the hotel suite to the solemnisation venue.

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6th place under ‘Other Vendor’

This photo is a tribute to all vendors, especially those who are perfectionists, like this banquet manager preparing the glasses for the Champagne pouring.  I love the way those funky colors from the stage light work in this image.

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15th place under ‘Emotion’

The next 2 images are very typical of the kind of quirkiness that’s underscores most of my images.  The whole mix of reactions and expressions that really make us wonder what exactly is going on in the scene, and in anyway, most people would have focused their cameras on the flower girl in this part of the ceremony, I’ve just offered the other perspective …  looking at things from an obtuse angle.

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and from the same wedding as the previous image, 3rd place under ‘Toasting’

I’ve shot countless toasting pictures at a wedding, but this particular one really caught my eye because of the expression of the bride’s brother in the picture.  I like the graphical way in which the hands holding the glasses is presented, and even the judges have mentioned that it is a very different angle from the others.

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Time for a little celebration, 9 awards in total for WPJA 2008, and 3 of which came in top 3 placing, I can’t wait for the overall ranking to be out 🙂

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