ANZAC DAY

I haven't been to a Anzac Day service for many, many years, but this day I somehow felt very moved to do so. It was a beautiful service. Right at the end, I met seven men who had served together in a platoon in Malaysia in the 50's. They made a pledge to meet together for Anzac Day in a different place in Australia every year. Good fast friends even now, this was, quite incredibly, their 51st Anzac Day celebration together. For one of these men, Nebo, this was likely his last. I had a wonderful conversation with him and this gallery is in honour of his life & my grandfather Andre Hoelen who fell in WWII...

http://paulhoelenphotography.dphoto.com/#/album/e0b16l

 I hope the leaders of this world can learn from the mistakes of the past and always find a path to peace... blessings on all those who gave their lives so that we may live as freely as we do now...Pau

THE AMAZING MIRANDA GIBSON IN THE 'OBSERVER TREE'

Just recently I ventured deep into the beautiful forests of the Styx Valley to photograph a very exceptional person - Miranda Gibson. She has been living 60m up a huge Eucalyptus Regnans tree on a tiny wooden platform  aptly named 'Observer Tree' for over half a year now - just breaking the Australian Record this week for treesitting. She has been regularly posting an amazing blog of her journey and of the situation with the forest agreements which has reached people all around the world...

http://observertree.org/

The views are incredible up there but braving freezing temperatures, high winds and so much isolation is not for the faint hearted - not to mention heights! I have so much respect for her incredible passion to save the high conservation forests of the region. She is committed to staying up there for as long as is needed until the government honours their promise to place the forest under a conservation agreement.

It was quite an adventure getting up there to see her. 

3hrs driving, 2.5 hrs bushwalking (including a bit of - um - which way was it again on the way back - oops!) and a 200 foot climb and abseil down in the dark later...not to mention a blister or two (hey, I've ever tried to climb 200 feet up a rope before!) Here are a few of the images...

Thank you very much Miranda for welcoming me into your home and being such a gracious host! And all the best with your worthy cause...

Here's a link to a web gallery of some of my favourite shots from the trip
http://paulhoelenphotography.dphoto.com/album/a5e45x

Paul Hoelen Photography - The Observer Tree

paulhoelenphotography.dphoto.com

RUNNER UP EMERGING LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR IN AUSTRALIA

I had an exciting phone call the other day from my good friend Mr Tom Putt, letting me know I'd made it onto a list with some very talented company - The Top Emerging Photographers of the Year in Australia. These awards have been running for seven years and are hosted by the hardworking staff of the photographic magazines at Yaffa Publishing. They develop a shortlist of folios from around the nation, consisting of six carefully chosen images that represent your best folio of work in a specific category or genre. I was awarded Runner Up in the Landscape Category which was judged by a very esteemed panel of judges, many of whom I've met in recent years and really look up to, namely Mr Peter Lik, Jackie Ranken, Urs Buhlman and Nick Melidonis. There are eight categories altogether - there's some really exciting work coming out - so have a look at mine and the other winner's folios at...

http://www.australianphotography.com/news/landscape1 

Here's a small thumbnail preview of my folio...

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!!!