NZ PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

Well, I thought I'd try my luck again over in the land of milk and honey - it is my homeland after all! I put in six images for the IRIS Awards and came away with five awards, so I'm very happy with that. This year, in particular, I would have been happier to be there in person, as it was held in Queenstown at the peak of the ski season in September!!! Next time!

I was awarded a silver and two bronze awards in the Landscape category, a bronze award in the Portrait Category and one more bronze in the Illustrative Category. The standard was exceptionally high this year and some of the images this year are incredible. I highly encourage you to have a thorough look, there is some exquisite imagery...

http://www.nzipp.org.nz/NzippWeb/Default.aspx?tabid=343

I also now have achieved my honorary associateship (ANZIPP), which means I can add to my Australian one and put a few more letters behind my name!

I've included a couple of images I put in this year's awards. The triptych was shot on my trusty Canon G10 (always in my pocket) at a rock outcrop in Dodges Ferry, Tasmania and the other was shot on a walk on a protected Peninsula south of Auckland NZ, just next to a beautiful Maori Pa site set above the water's edge. Enjoy!

GAIA HEALEY: PHOTOGRAPHY MENTOR PROJECT

Over a large part of this year I've had the absolute privilege of mentoring the lovely and multi talented Gaia Healey through her Year 8 Independent Project based on the photography medium. She produced a beautiful hardcover book of her images and a gorgeous and eloquently written journal of her whole project which she presented in an evening last week to all the Year 8 teachers, families and mentors. She also produced a lovely web journal through the process... check it out!

http://gaiahealeyphotography.blogspot.com

She has a terrific eye for the elements of subtlety and grace, as you can see, and showed a lot of committment to follow through on her project - despite some funky setbacks! It was awesome being your mentor Gaia, thank you so much for asking and putting up with me jetting off all the time! Keep up the great work, and feel free to show me some new tricks anytime!

KAYAKING PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to teach an action sport photography class on location. Based in Tarraleah, deep in the wilds of Western Tasmania., the specific focus was on kayaking photography and was held in conjuction with the 2010 White Water Conference. After a quick tech talk we got straight into the heart of the matter, racing up and down the challenging course shooting fastidiously while the paddlers were doing their runs. A lot of cumecs were flowing so the paddlers had there work cut out for them, especially in the infamous 'Cruncher' rapid! There wouldn't be many places in the world where you can get such closeness, variety of angles (both sides of river, bridges, complete riverbank access etc) and consistency of paddlers coming down to photograph, so it was a fabulous opportunity to experiment!

We all went through our images and spent time critiquing each others, as well as delving deeper into the relevant technical skills, camera settings and equipment issues. I presented two shows to the whole Conference Saturday night. The first was a selection of my images from the day laced with an artistic flavour, and then a larger Tasmanian Landscape Photography Show to finish the night. I absolutely relished being in an educatory role and really look forward to my next opportunity to teach!

Here's a small selection and a link to a gallery of my shots from the Masterclass.

http://gallery.me.com/paulhoelen#100278

EUROPEAN AWARDS: Trierenberg Supercircuit

Last month I submitted a selection of images to the illustrious global Trierenberg Supercircuit Awards based in Austria. Of the 55,ooo entries worldwide, nine of mine have been selected to travel through Europe over their summer in a huge travelling show. Two other images have also been published in their exquisitely printed Awards book, which just arrived on my doorstep a couple of days ago. These are the two images...

I've never entered the awards before and am super happy with my first attempt, particularly in gaining some valuable exposure in the European market. I'll certainly be entering them again next year!!!

Thank you Chris (awards organiser) for your wonderful feedback, much appreciated. http://www.supercircuit.at

And also I'd particularly like to thank the lovely Belinda Fettke for her encouragement and terrific generosity in helping me select and prepare the images for the awards. www.bphotography.net.au

Thanks Belinda!

APPA Awards Gala Dinner

new and leaving AIPP Presidents getting down!

my Gold award this year!

my Gold with Distinction Award from last year!

Well, with some well needed recovery time after the APPA Cocktail Party, some random street photography sessions and a trip to the One Gallery to see some of Murray Fredericks supersize prints it was time to man up for the night of nights - the infamous Australian Professional Photography Awards Gala Dinner!

Set amongst the glowing chandelier's of the grandiose Paladium Room in the Crown Casino, there was no shortage of glamour milling through the room!

A record number of entries had meant a busy time for the judges this year. Interestingly a kiwi won the Landscape Category for the second year running (maybe that means I'll have a better chance of winning it one day?!) The Highest scoring print when to a young Dan O'Day from Canberra with three of the 5 judges scoring it a staggering 100!!!

A big congratulations to Tony Hewitt for becoming one of the very, very few Grand Master Photographers in the world. You deserve it Tony!

Plenty of dancing went down till the pumpkin hour hit at 12, then the revelry continued through to the wee hours of the morning at the afterparty.

Here are a few photos of the event... It's a wonderful atmosphere there. It's also a great way to meet some very talented people and view some cutting edge and progressively creative work!

I highly recommend it!

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2010

The Biggest Event of the year in the Photography calendar set off in style at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in June. A new element to the judging system where you could see each individual judges score live lent a fabulous transparency to the process and made it much more interesting I feel.

It was all over pretty quickly for me this year. All on the first day in fact! It started with a bang with another coveted Gold Award (thank you judges!!!), followed closely by a Silver with Distinction, then two more Silver Awards. So four out of four and enough points to gain my associateship in the AIPP which I will receive next year. Pretty happy with that!!

So with all the big stuff over for me I managed to settle down for the rest of the event and enjoy all the trappings on offer. I checked out some of the latest buzz software and equipment, enjoyed some late night judging sessions and managed a respectable 1.30am at the APPA Judging cocktail afterparty, , etc...

I really enjoyed the lecture series, with the standouts for me being a late sat night session of the best under water photography I've ever seen (thanks Kevin), a handshake and steely eyed look from the infamous war photographer Tim Page and a delicious presentation of Murray Fredericks SALT Documentary and stories of his new Greenland project (thanks for the copy of the the film Murray!)

Thanks to all the super hard working APPA Team and volunteers for creating such a seamlessly run event...

Here are my winning prints from this year.

Looking forward to Sydney in 2011...!

ABC RADIO INTERVIEW with Hillary Burden

A few days ago I was invited to participate in a 4 way interview with ABC's Hillary Bunker about a continuing project I have been involved in - namely photographing & documenting Tasmania's unique Vale of Belvoir ecosystem and landscape. A lot of interest has been generated about the project from the current article featured in Australian Geographic. The somewhat legendary Grant Dixon and organiser of the project Matt Newton rounded out the panel. We spoke of the incredibly high conservation value of the Vale, the deep lineage of wilderness photography in Tasmania, new interpretation of landscapes by the upcoming photographers and the changing methods of viewing in this new digital age...

Here is a link to the current Aus Geo Article.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/tasmanias-veiled-beauty.htm

and also to the radio interview itself...

http://blogs.abc.net.au/tasmania/2010/07/tasmanian-wilderness-photography-vale-of-belvoir.html?site=northtas&program=northern_tasmania_drive

I have just applied for a space in an alternative exhibition of imagery of the Vale to be held over the summer at the world class Wilderness Gallery at Cradle Mountain, then down in Hobart from March. Wish me luck!

Here are a few more of my recent Vale Images...

TASMANIAN PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2010

Well I'd just whipped back over from the land of milk and honey (NZ) in time to spend two very long days and nights preparing and printing eight images for the tassie state professional photography awards. It was a bit of a miracle that my printer was even working after 3 1/2 months in a very hot shed over summer, all reasonable expectations were that it would be a dried out minx! Yet to my absolute delight, the very first print was perfect!

I journeyed up to Launnie for the judging and managed to pull five silver awards out of the hat, which I was very happy with! With four out of four awards in the open category I was in the running for the title, but I ended up about 5 points behind the leaders (out of 360 or so), so ended with a third. Better luck next year! Pam Verwey and Phil Kuruvita battled it out for the top spot, which Phil won on a decimal point countback!

The following day by Ross Easton led a very insightful session about the future of photography.

Did you know that the largest camera manufacturer in the world is actually Nokia - the phone company?!!! He spoke a lot about the merging of video and still photography (labelled 'fusion'), the hugely expanding role of CGI (computer generated imagery) and the magazine and newspaper world converting to digital viewing... it's a fast changing medium... incredibly so.

Here's a few of my entries this year's TPPY...

CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL

Well the Chinese New year has come and gone and was celebrated in style here in Auckland over two fabulous evenings. Thousands of people came to enjoy the rich music and theatrical performances, rich delicacies and vibrant atmosphere. My eye was drawn to the vast array of intricate and colourful lanterns set up throughout the event. Here's a few of my favourites...

WAI O TAPU - Sacred Waters

Nestled deep in the heart of the geothermal wonderland that is Rotorua, Wai o Tapu is a rich mixture of mood, colour and texture, not to mention smell. It's a wonderful testament to the earth's deep internal power come forth to the surface to be experienced by us above. It's one of my favourite places in NZ to photograph. From the artist's palette that is the Champagne

pool, the eery greens of the Devil's Chasm and the bubbling swirls of molten rock and clay creating ever moving patterns... I love it!