I am extremely happy to announce that at the annual Photographers of Canada banquet, I was awarded the prestigious Master of Photographic Arts Title.

For the past 6 years, I have been working hard to receive the Master Title.  This is a title that we receive after showing time after time our photographic qualifications and skills by regularly participating and hanging images in the PPOC’s National Image Salon.

It is a long and hard road to make it here but one that definitely is worth the travel.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

This shoot was probably the most fun shoot that I had last year. We thought of an idea; James Bond and then worked around it to create their family images.  This session is one of my favorite, we had fun, we got creative and the kids were totally into it!  They rented tuxes for everyone and even borrowed a gun for a more authentic look.

Project #2 in the creative 52 book was to create a portrait of someone without showing their face.

I chose to do a portrait of a teenager while including some of the elements that represented him at this time in his life.

One thing I do find difficult with my work is inspiration; finding inspiration, be inspired and possess the technical knowledge to be able to take a blossoming idea and bring it to fruition.

Last year, I discovered Lindsay Adler’s book called Creative 52.  This book written by a world renowned fashion photographer proposes 52 creative projects to be able to produce 52 totally different and inspiring images.

Slowly but surely I am trying to get through the book.

For the first project we had to create an image based on a single color.  I chose red and I chose to stylize the image and the model a little bit more than I would usually.

Every year, I enter images into the provincial competition to measure up against the best photographers of the province and also to test the waters for the National competition.  If an image does well at Provincials, chances are it will be well received at Nationals.  Out of my 4 images submitted this year, 2 of them were accepted but also both of them won a juror’s choice award!

I was ecstatic, here are the images:

Being a member of the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC) means to work extra hard at always maintaining and distinguishing myself photographically. One of the ways to do that is to submit some of my portfolio images to be judged by some of my peers every now and again to obtain an accreditation.

When applying for an accreditation, we must submit 10 images in a category of our choice.  These images are then judges and closely examined by a group of photographers.  If all ten images are accepted, we receive an accreditation in the field that we submitted in proving our capacity at producing above average work in that particular field.  It is not as easy as it seems.  Everything has to be perfect; impact, creativity, style,
composition, presentation, color balance, centre of interest, lighting, subject matter, image file quality, technique and story telling all have to be extremely strong.

I’ve received my 4th accreditation this year in environmental portrait.  I am extremely proud of this one. Find good light is one of the things I sometimes struggle with; the direction of light, the quality and color of it are all elements that need yo be seen and recognized.

So here are my 10 images in Environmental Portrait that got me my 4th accreditation with PPOC.