IPA – Honourable Mention

I entered the International Photography Awards competition this year on a whim, with 3 entries (A series titled “Alley Dwellers”, a series titled “Alone”, and a single image titled “Hidden Faces”). It’s the first time I’ve entered a competition, and I only really went in it because it was late at night and I tend to do these sorts of things on the spur of the moment when I’m tired (which could explain my eBay habits as well!!).

Anyway, received some great news the other day – 2 of my entries had been selected for final judging and were official Honourable Mentions. According to the emails I received:

Congratulations. Your entry ‘Alley Dwellers’ (and “Alone”) has advanced through the second round and is now in the third and final round of the jurying process. Your entry is now an official Honorable Mention of the 2009 International Photography Awards.
In addition, your entry is now competing for a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place title.

How cool is that!! I didn’t win or get a place though in the end, but I’m not at all disappointed. It’s the first time I’ve entered a real competition, and I didn’t even really look closely at all the categories and types of entries I could have tried! And to get 2 out of my 3 entries all the way through initial rounds of judging is more than I ever expected!! And here’s the kicker – apparently there were around 18,000 entries – zOMG!!!

I like to think of it as an “equal 4th place”, but I really have no idea how many honourable mentions they give out, so I could just be deluding myself!! But do take a look at the IPA website and marvel at some amazing imagery!! In particular, a couple of shooters I admire actually won prizes and they produce such awesome work, so check them out too – Jingna Zhang is amazing, and Matthew Scherfenberg knows lighting in a way that impresses me!

Here are a couple of the images (not the full sets, though) – thanks to all the models for making my images look like I know what I’m doing!!

Alley Dwellers

Alone