This post is going to feel like de ja vu but I promise it’s a different thing from the awards that were announced in October. So many of my “awards” posts in 2020 were about the Guild of Photographers IoM (image of the month) competition, this is kind of the cumulation of those and it’s tied back to the Finalists/Top 10 post I did in December.
That was a lot of links, sorry.
So the 6th February was awards night with the Guild and because of Corona it was online again. This time via a Facebook Live which was a bit strange because the comments were coming up out of sync – we knew who had won the next category because of the “well done” comments before it was even announced! In the end, we hid the comments because it was taking the excitement out of the category winners!
Anyhow, you may remember that I had one image in the Equine final and three in the Pet final. My pony photo didn’t place so it was a nervous wait for the Pets to come round. Then this happened:
Holy moly – double whammy!
I was so chuffed when the runner-up was announced I nearly went to make a celebratory cup of tea there and then!
The best part of these images for me is that they were shot on client sessions.
The collie shot (Molly) was the first shot in the session and I wasn’t convinced with the location or light at all – she’s looking up at her owner who was just out of shot. I nearly didn’t edit it! That’s how close it was vs the other images in the session!
The Malinois was more planned because I know the dog (Dora) and I know the log! Still, the positioning and composition were so difficult to get right and have Dora close her mouth. We ended up compositing a closed mouth head in from a poorer conformation shot, but she’s such a powerful dog the rest carries itself (i think).
Here are the images:
Missing shooting at the moment, a lot. And to be honest I’m not convinced that I’ll enter any awards this year. It’s not that I don’t love the excitement of it, it’s just that I think that 2020 was a mega year for awards with the dogs/pets and I’m content with leaving this where it is. Maybe I’ve peaked? Shall I retire? (joking)
Hopefully, we can all be back doing what we love ASAP – hope you’re all safe and well!