CAPTURE MAGAZINE: THE ANNUAL

Capture Magazine is Australia biggest selling Professional Photography Magazine and at the end of very year they pull together a terrific representation of what they've deemed as some of the best photography to come out of Australia and New Zealand over the preceeding year. I was very lucky to be included in that collection for one of my images in the Documenatry Category. This was taken at a remote area on the East Coast of the North Island of NZ, Kaiaua Bay, as part of the annual Tologa Bay Horse Race event that's been running for almost 50 years. I felt like I was in a timewarp back into the 50's the whole time I was there... I'm super grateful for the acknowledgement and a big shout out to Mark and Armani at Capture for all their hard work collating all the work from the two countries!

WOMEN IN THE LENS EXHIBITION

I have just been accepted into a fabulous exhibition exploring the beauty of the feminine form called 'Woman in the Lens'. It's a collection of 100 images by some of the world's most famous photographers including:

Annie Liebovitz
Helmut Newton
Herb Ritts
Man Ray
Bert Stern
Lisa Tomasetti
Patrick Demarchelier

It's an amazing privilege to be up on the wall with the likes of these wonderful men and women. A big thank you to Philip and Millie at Source Photographica for welcoming me into the show! The exhibition runs from  October 18-30 at Source Photographica Gallery, 1A Rose St, Brighton, Melbourne, Victoria. If you can, get yourself in to see the show in person - I think it's quite exceptional and definitely one of the few collections like it in this part of the world!

For those of you who won't be able to get there in person, here's is a link to the online gallery...

http://www.sourcephotographica.com.au/womeninthelens.html

I have a series of four images in the show, three from remote areas in Tasmania and one from a few weeks ago in Switzerland, here are a couple to enjoy...

None of this would have been possible without the awesome support of my beautiful lady Mandarine Montgomery, definitely a wonderful co-creation here with this series... Thank you so much darling, let's do some more!

OVERSEAS PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR FINALIST AT NZIPP 2011

Well, I had to have a crack at the trifecta...! I sent five entries over the Tasman to the New Zealand Professional Photography Awards a few weeks ago, which was just now finished being judged in Rotorua. I came away with five awards out of five - a Silver with Distinction and Bronze in the Classic Portrait Category and a Silver and Two Bronze in the Landscape Category. This not being cool enough already, it gave me enough points to finally win my Masters of Photography MNZIPP! Woohoo!!!


To top it off I was announced as a finalist for the Overseas Photographer of the Year for 2011 (pretty funny given that I am a proudly a kiwi, but I'll take it!).  Sue Bryce took the win with an absolutely phenomenal set of entries - three Gold and one Gold with Distinction!

I wish i was over there for this one! Maybe next year?

Here 's a link to the very clean and slick NZ Pro Report with all the winners and their award winning entries... there's some absolutely gorgeous work - totally worth some time - so treat yourself!

http://issuu.com/daspray/docs/nzipp_proreport_infocus_2011?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed

AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2011

Well the night of nights for Photography in Australia has been and gone in it’s traditional whirlwind style….It was the biggest yet with a record number of entries over three huge days of judging streamed live all around the world. 

My lovely lady Mandy came away with a prestigious Gold and three Silver with Distinction awards and the coveted title of Runner Up Australian Portrait Photographer of the Year. So proud of you Mandy, you totally deserve it!

Mandy and her Gold Award - awesome!

Mandy when one of her winning prints was announced...

I came away with my Associateship Award, a Silver with Distinction and two Silver awards in the Landscape Category which was cool.

Shireen Hammond and my Silver with Distinction Awards!

High Silver Award

I camped out this year with the very talented and multi award winning crew from Exclusive Photography in Melbourne (including last years Portrait Runner up Damien Bowerman and Portrait Winner Chris Ian). We didn't exactly rough it lounging out in our high rise Penthouse apartment on the edge of Darling Harbour... Thaks for such a great time you guys!!!

Me and the Exclusive Photography Crew

The APPA Awards dinner went off in fine style, a super enjoyable night...

Hiedi Klum, eat your heart out - here's the beautiful Mandarine Montgomery!!!

Announcing Mandy's Runner Up Portrait win

Myself, Rob & Shireen Hammond, and Fiona Harrison

Getting my Associateship Medal

Celebrating!!!

Master of Photography Mandy!

Mandarine and Jackie

Mandy and I

Congratulations especially to Christian Fletcher for his landscape win and him and his brother Michael for the Fusion title win also. Superb work from the twin photographers!

The standard each year keeps reaching new heights - there's some seriously creative people out there!!! I can't recommend highly enough the value in competing, watching the judges delve into the images, soaking in the feedback, creating connections with other gifted photographers and touching base with the technological advances that the PMA show provides as part of the package. Just fantastic!

Doing a bit of 'product research' at the PMA show

I'll be back for more, but first I'm having a crack at the NZ Professional Photography Awards for 2011. Here we go!!!

TASMANIAN PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2011

Well, this week has left me with a few bags under my eyes, a better knowledge of what I don't know about the art of printing, some glassware for the mantelpiece and a very deep and genuine smile... After a few weeks of tossing and turning in my sleep over what to put in, and an all nighter of printing on the last day, I managed to get 12 prints in to the EpsonTasmanian Professional Photographer of the Year awards held here in Hobart. After an intense and fascinating day of judging, and a fair bit of breath holding, I was announced Tasmanian Professional Photographer of the Year for 2011. On the way I picked up the titles of Landscape Photographer of the Year, General Photographer of the Year and Runner up Portrait Photographer of the Year to boot.

Somebody joked about needing a trolley!

Here is a web gallery of the winning images...

http://gallery.me.com/paulhoelen#100596

Six categories were judged by a panel of five judges and the scores of the four prints in each were added together to determine the highest score and overall winner for the category. Sometimes the scores varied widely and this generated some fascinating and very educational debate. It's amazing what people can see within the imagery. We had two new categories this year, Landscape and Family, and a record number of entries. I entered 12 prints and 11 of them won awards. I came away with one Gold, four Silver with Distinction and six Silver Awards all up. Woohoo!

It has definitely been a goal of mine to do well here, but to do this well has just blown me away!

I have many people to thank: the judges for their eloquent words and discerning scoring - particularly Andrew and Robyn Campbell; the Tas AIPP Board for all their hard volunteer work and for pulling a bonus prize out of thin air for me; Ian & Ruth at Campbell St Framers for their fantastic mounting and helping me squeak my entries in on time, but most of all I have to thank the beautiful Mandarine Montgomery - her discerning eye with image selection, subtle retouching skills, patient explanation of photoshop tools to a complete hack like me and fantastic support through all the crazy hours were the main reason I made it here! Thank you Mandy...

CRADLE MOUNTAIN WILDERNESS GALLERY

After a decade or so of ogling some of the worlds best landscape photographs at the Cradle Mountain Wilderness Gallery - I finally have some up of my own!

II have several images up as part of a large two room group exhibition. The exhibit is called Vale of Belvoir and has been created by a collective of some of the best Wilderness and fine art photographers in the state. We worked over a year photographing the Vale - a unique area of great conservational significance due to its cultural history, rare and endangered herbfields, rich carniverous marsupial population and - well - plain beauty!!! It has thankfully now been purchased by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy which will go a long way to preserve this magical, wild and precious part of the world... Some of the photographers involved are Rob Blakers, Grant Dixon, Simon Olding, Wolfgang Glowacki... the list goes on. Needless to say the calibre of the work is exceptional! Enjoy!


There was an article in Australian Geographic earlier last year about the photographers and the project. A very successful one and one I'm very privileged to be a part of!


Here's a couple of images of me enjoying the show!

JADE ULANI YOUNG -SInger/Songwriter

Jade is a beautiful young singer and songwriter from down here in Hobart. I've been watching her grow into herself and her gifts for quite a few years now, and just a couple of nights ago she played her first big live performance at the Republic Bar - the home of live music in Hobart. She played beautifully, with a confidence and eloquence well beyond her years -  fabulous set Jade!! A few hours before her performance we came together for a spontaneous shoot and a video recording of one of her original songs. Here are a few of the images from the day...

THE ASWPP EDGE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2010

I was just jumping on a plane to NZ to shoot the R&V Music Festival when a friend e-mailed through that I'd won the Open Wedding Division of the ASWPP Awards for 2010 in Australia. Stoked!!! I'd like to thank the ASWPP for their beautiful glass trophy (never had one of those!) and I'm super excited about putting the $2000 or so of printing prizes to exceptionally good use! Here is the winning image...