APPA - Australian Professional Photography Awards

What is APPA and why is it so important?

​APPA is the Australian Photography Awards and is THE biggest photography event in Australia. The APPA's as they are colloquially known as gives you the opportunity to put forward your best work and go head to head with others from all over the country in the genre of your choice. To be eligible to enter you must first be seeded at state level or gain a wildcard. After winning the Aipp 2016 Tasmanian Pet Photographer Of The Year i gained automatic seeding into these awards so set about preparing my entries. Unless you have entered before you really have no idea the amount of work that goes into this preparation, the stress that goes along with it and the many sleepless nights questioning yourself about whether or not you have made the right decisions with your images, whether you are good enough, whether everything you have poured your heart and soul into will stand up and speak for all that hard work. Choosing 4 images only is one of the hardest things to do, i mean i take hundreds and having to just choose 4 becomes a battle of the mind "why am i doing this" "this one or that" "this one has sharper eyes" "this one has better composition" "who am i kidding, i'm not good enough" and so on and so on but at the end of the day there is a reason i hang onto as to as why on earth i put myself through all of this and it is i have to try to better myself, for me, for no one else but me. If i succeed all my hard work has been worth is. If i don't succeed all my hard work has still been worth it because i will have been taught something from the whole process and will learn for next time.
​To quote my very good friend Michael "Life is not meant to be a spectator sport, get out there and play"

There is a misconception that in order to take a good photo you just need a good camera, anyone can do it right?  yes anyone can take a photo but can anyone capture a feeling or a moment. I want to speak up here for all the professional photographers like myself to those who think this profession is easy. It's not and too often people forget the countless hours of work that can go into preparing one image. It is not just booking a session, grabbing your camera and off you go, snap, 2 minutes on a computer and presto. It is more than than that and i really want people to understand that each image a an Aipp Accredited Professional Photographer produces for a client has had countless hours of work, blood, sweat and tears put into it to produce that final product. I strongly believe that every AIPP Accredited Professional Photographer strives for a standard equal to no other and can proudly say i am an Aipp Accredited Professional Photographer.

After narrowing my initial folder of possible images down to around 10 i then sat down and did the painstaking task of choosing 4. I chose 3 images i had entered at the state awards and decided to go with 1 new image. I also took the fantastic feedback i got from my images at the state awards on board and made slight changes, tweaked and saw the advice the judges had given me was right. This is part of the whole learning process. The new image i had selected i just had to hope i was right in thinking it was a great image and to go with it.
My results were as such: One Silver Distinction awarded, 2 Silver's awarded and one image scored 77 which is still in the range of Professional practice. Am i over the moon, yes, APPA is tough, judging is tough and these awards are not given out lightly. I am as please as punch and will definitely put myself though all this again next year chasing Gold..
The icing on the cake was to be awarded my Associate Honours.. each Silver award is worth 1 point and 5 points are required to reach the level of Associate. Have 2 points from last year and picking up my 3 points this year i now have that special golden ribbon.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their well wishes, means so much to me to have people around me who support and encourage. Forever grateful x

My 2016 APPA Entries

Silver Distinction

Silver

Silver