New Zealand Wedding Photographer of the Year 2018
The Nikon/NZIPP Epson Iris Awards 2018 were held in Wellington again this year. After hearing that I was a finalist again for both the In-Camera Artistry and Open categories, I made the trip down to Wellington in the hope that I would win at least one of them. I ended up winning both categories and I am super stoked to say that I am NZIPP's Wedding Photographer of the Year for 2018!
Last year the Open category was named 'Creative' and I won this last year too, so to win it again this year was just awesome!
The Wedding In-Camera Artistry category allows photographs with the reliance of conventional in-camera techniques only (category sponsored by Momento Pro Wedding Albums). The following quote was said about my submission and images for this category:
Wedding In-Camera Artistry Winner - Justin Aitken, Tauranga:
The winning set of images in the Wedding In-Camera Artistry category conveyed a soft fine art feel and elegant poised vision, emotion and perfection. The prints reflecting a level of craft through diversity of perspective, tonality and execution.
The Wedding Open category allows a mix of in-camera skills and no limits with post production techniques, blended with contemporary ideas that reflect wedding moments, storytelling and communication (category sponsored by Olympus). The following quote was said about my submission and images for this category:
Wedding Open Category Winner - Justin Aitken, Tauranga:
The submission displayed a consistent level of quality, vision. The graphical nature, innovation, diversity and creativity excited the judges, who felt it showed a strong, unique and well constructed set of images.
I love the process of creating, and sharing, and seeing other like minded people do well and succeed. The discussions on the images, seeing people's ideas and concepts come to life, and reading into the stories. I do it because I enjoy it! It doesn't always go the way we want (i.e. some images don't get awards and some don't award as highly as you had hoped), but it's all part of the process of learning and growing as an artist.
A major thanks to the sponsors of the categories, Momento Pro Wedding Albums and Olympus. Thanks to my lovely wife for being such a superstar, and thanks to all my couples who trust in me to capture their big days!
Here are the rest of my images that won awards:
"The view from inside the guitar" - Wedding Open Category - Nikon/NZIPP Iris Awards 2018
"The Soccer Ball Kaleidoscope" - Wedding Open Category - Nikon/NZIPP Iris Awards 2018