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... 

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