Tampa Print Competition 2013

Last night was the annual Salon Print Competition for the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association (TAPPA) where each member is allowed to enter up to six images and be scored by three certified judges.

It's a tough thing.  Prints are graded from 1-100 and the magic score is 80.  Score less than 80 and you have a nice print but score more than 80 and you have a "merit" print.  A merit print is one that is deemed worthy to take to the next level of competition (state, national..).  80 is the magic number that everyone is hoping for.

There were 112 images entered last night and 24 merits.  That's 21%.  That doesn't seem like many and it's even worse when you consider that one photographer in the guild who shoots commercial and landscapes received a merit for all 6 of his images (this is almost never done).  Take him out of the competition and you get 106 images and 18 merits (just 16%).  (59 prints received a score of 78-79)

I entered 6 images myself and had a strong feeling that one would merit.  You have to understand that it's very hard to merit.  All six images are great but that's not enough in competition, especially in the wedding/event category.  The judges have to see something unique.  Simply taking a well-posed, well-lit shot isn't enough if it's the sort of thing they have seen many times before.

I ended up with two merits, one in "Uncategorized," and one in "Weddings and Social."

I had a good feeling about the sunglasses.  Still, the judges showed some restraint.  Their biggest concern is that it is "kitchy."  In other words, it's a "gimmick" picture.  I guess they frown on using props, etc... I don't know.  I think that if I had just photographed the couple normally it wouldn't have received a merit at all because that shot has been done a million times.  So, I got a merit for shooting an old shot in a new way but was almost knocked down for being "kitchy."

You can see how print competition can be frustrating. :)

Ritz Ybor and Pediatric Cancer Foundation

I just got an email from my friend Oki at The Ritz, Ybor.

Every year, they have an event called, "Miracle on 7th Avenue."  It's a great night of music and fun with all the proceeds going to The Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

For the last three years, I've been shooting/printing pictures of Santa at the event with the proceeds going to the cause.  I always enjoy it.

Anyway, Oki's email came with a picture of the check that their parent company (Radiant Group) gave to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.  I know that my contribution is nothing compared to all the hard work that others put into the various fund-raisers throughout the year but still, it's nice to know that I was in there somewhere.  :)

Wedding at Mirror Lake Lyciem St. Pete

I wanted to get this album online because Mirror Lake Lyceum is such an interesting venue.  There's nothing else quite like it in St. Petersburg.

Kristen and Shawn had a fantastic wedding!

The first panel is the cover, 2nd panel is the first page.  After that it's double-page spreads.  Click on the images to bring them up larger..

Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida.
Getting married on the beach?  Here's how to have the Perfect Florida Beach Wedding!
Nothing makes a party more fun than The Vogue Booth.  Tampa's Best Photobooth!
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Odds and Ends...

Oh, blog..... I've neglected you of late. :)

We were swamped over the holidays with weddings and events.  Then, in January I went to Imaging U.S.A., which is the national convention for the Professional Photographers Association of America.  It was held in Atlanta this year and, since I live in Florida, I decided I should go since it was as close as I could hope to get without actually being in my home state.  Florida's great but it takes eight hours just to leave the state by car. :)

The convention was great.  Lot's of photographers to meet, workshops to attend and I got to hang out with my old friend Jodi from Ben and Jodi Photography. She spent the whole week drinking as much "sweet tea" as she could find since they just don't offer that up in Ohio.

I spent most of the time at the convention taking notes full of ideas for a speaking program.  One of the big things in PPA is education and members are encouraged to "give back."  I decided that I would put together a program that I could share with local chapters and spent the whole weekend brainstorming ideas.  Last night I presented my program for the first time to the Lakeland PPA chapter and it went well.  No one got up and left, only a few items were thrown at me, good times. :)

I had a unique opportunity last month when I was asked to shoot some images for the WWE.  That's right, your humble photographer got to photograph professional wrestlers!  The whole thing was green screen so that the backgrounds can be replaced for tour programs, etc.  One thing I will say about the wrestlers, male and female alike, is that they were the most polite, well-mannered people you could ever hope to work with. It was a pleasure to meet them.

Of course I had plenty of weddings as well and no blog post would be complete without some wedding pictures:

Finally, we wedding photographers love to complain about people who get in our way at weddings.  We call these people "Uncle Bob" and usually it's someone who owns a nice camera and in their eagerness to "get the shot" at a wedding they end up blocking us.  It's just one of those things... everybody likes to complain about something so we complain about Uncle Bob.

Well, just let me say for the record that not all "Uncle Bob's" are created equal.  (I've written about them here.)  At my wedding on New Year's Eve, I met a man who was using a camera that he had bought some 60 years ago for his own wedding.  It shot film!  

When a man at your wedding has a camera that is older than you are, he get's to do whatever he wants to do.  :)

It was a great wedding. We got fantastic images and the party was a riot!

Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida.

Getting married on the beach?  Here's how to have the Perfect Florida Beach Wedding!

Nothing makes a party more fun than The Vogue Booth.  Tampa's Best Photobooth!

My Awesome Blogging Skills Revealed!

I'll admit it, I'm the worst when it comes to blogging my weddings. My photographer friends here in Tampa seem to be so good at getting a bunch of pictures from their wedding on to their blog as quickly as possible. For me, it seems like there's always one other thing on my list that I need to do before I can finally get around to updating the blog. :-)

Luckily, every so often, I get a great reminder from a client like Jessica. Jessica lives in California and came all the way here to Tampa to get married. She just received her wedding album in the mail today and she wrote me an email to tell me how much she loved it. It was a great reminder to me to be sure and put some pictures from her wedding on my blog so everyone can see them. (… Did you notice how I managed to sneak in a little complement to me in this paragraph?)

Jessica and Matt were married on the beach in what might have been the windiest beach wedding I shot all year. No matter, they were great sports about the weather and had a fantastic wedding. It was a real joy working with them.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the wedding:

But wait, I'm not going to post images from the wedding. I have to laugh at myself because as I was writing this blog and preparing to post these images while complaining that I never update my blog, I realized that I'd actually already posted Jessica and Matt's entire album onto the blog. It's three posts before this one. LOL

My blogging skills leave a lot to be desired.

Wedding Photography and The Cell-Phone Face

There's a new trend that I've been witnessing at weddings in the last year or so. It's one of those things that you see happening and you realize that there's nothing you can do about it. It's going to keep happening, it's going to get worse, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Still, I think it's interesting so I wanted to take a few minutes to point it out.

I don't want you to think that I'm complaining or being whiny... not because I'm not capable of being complaining and whining… Oh yes, I'm very capable… But rather because, as I said, I don't really think there's anything that can be done about this problem. I also think that it's the sort of thing that only wedding photographers really notice so it might be interesting to folks who don't see weddings the way that we do.  :)

Tampa Wedding and Social Event Photographer of the Year

Last night was the holiday party for T.A.P.P.A. (Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association).  The great thing about holiday parties is that it gives everyone an excuse to dress up.  Also, there's a bar.

Every year, someone in the association is named "Photographer of the Year."  The criteria has changed a little over the years.  It used to be that the honor was based on who won the most ribbons in print competitions throughout the year but now they also award points for service to the guild.  It's a good system because you can't "win" just by winning print competitions and you can't "win" just by serving on the board or chairing a committee... you have to do both.  I like that it's given to photographers who win competitions but also give their time to servicing the guild.

This year we actually had a tie for 1st place so we had two "Photographers of the Year."  Great guys who well deserved the honor.

What came as a surprise was that they also gave out plaques for the most points in each individual category of print competition.  There are  five categories (Wedding and Events, Portraits, Electronic Imaging, Commercial and Uncategorized).  I didn't realize that they gave plaques for each category so it was a pleasant surprise when I won the "Event" category. :)

I got a little plaque and everything!

Booray Perry is a wedding photographer in Tampa Bay.  See his work here
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