NZIPP Iris Awards 2017

After entering the NZIPP Iris Awards last year, for the first time again in years I was a little nervous entering again! I had set myself a target, so it was a little scarier then last year when I was just happy to get any award!

The New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography has a honors system, where you work your way up over the years depending on how many points you have in total and how many you earned within a 4 year period through the awards. Because I have been a bit sporadic with my entries over the years, I had never achieved the required points within the timeframe to work my way up.

So, after last year gaining 6 bronzes, I knew I need at least four more bronzes to get me the Associate level. And if I dared to dream big, I may even get something more than a bronze to get up to another level…….

Well the first day rolled around and I had entered two images into two categories that I had never entered before – Documentary and Illustrative. I was particularly nervous about these prints as were both personal work (self-commissioned, non client work) and different from what I usually do.

First up was my Doco image. This shot meant a lot to me as it was an image of my children and some of their friends after a game of rugby. I love this image because it tells you so much about this social group, how they interact, the personalities and also the story that is being told can be seen reflected everywhere through life. So my first print came up, butterflies in the tummy watching as the judges got up, analysed my image and sat back down to put in their scores. The scores varied between the judges from Bronze to Silver, which is always a good thing as it ensures that the judges will talk about the photograph. Those that feel strongly about why an image is good will talk about it and try and convince the others to see what they see. Others will try and talk it down. Its a nerve wreaking process listening to it! A few of the judges really saw the story and knew exactly what was going on. A couple thought it was just an ordinary image with nothing going on. For me, what I love about it is yes it is an ordinary scene that we see weekly on our sports field, but when you look closer, my goodness it is like a social microclimate! So after a bit of debate (it felt like forever!) they finally re-scored. Silver! I was ecstatic, my first Silver! I have to admit, I did shed a wee tear. So here it is –

Documentary

Next up was my Illustrative Image. Again, this was personal work an entered into a new category for me. It also meant a lot as its an image that I wanted to create how a lot of us women feel about our bodies. I couldn’t believe it when this one also got a silver! They didn’t talk about this shot, which I was a little surprised about as out of all my images I thought it would be the one to cause the most discussion. I was completely over the moon with my second silver, as I know that with those two awards I would not only make it to the Associate level, but also up another level to Master! I will post this image in a separate post as I have a little more to say about it.

Day two was the portrait classic category, in which I had entered four images three that were from client shoots, and one was a last minute self commissioned image. There received awards and one didn’t. This was really interesting as the image that I thought was my strongest just missed out, whereas the image I thought was my weakest scored the highest. It just goes to show that it is all such a learning curve! So here are my three Portrait Classic images –