Victorian Pro Photography Awards

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Hi Everyone,

I was honoured and a little bit overawed that my astrophotography prints were very well received by the judges at the AIPP Victorian Professional Photographer of the Year Awards yesterday.

From 4 pictures entered, I received a silver award (83/100) and three silver awards with distinction scoring 86, 87 & 88.

The prints are done on super gloss Fuji flex paper, mounted 3 dimensionally on raised black card, with a circular matt surround, to enhance the "telescope" effect.
(sorry the iphone photo doesn't really show it off, but there are low res versions of the images below.)

Whilst the judges are not themselves astrophotographers, they represent some of the countries' best professional scientific, nature and environmental photographers.
The category I entered these into included amazing images of wildlife, polar bears, penguins in Antarctica, etc.

Overall it's very humbling they they liked them, especially considering where I'm at and the standard of work I one day dream of aspiring to achieve as exhibited by some of the true masters on this forum, who continue to inspire me so much.

But, hey I'll take it!

Cheers Andy

[uwahl (Ulrich)]

Nice pics!. What an interesting way of mounting the photos - I don't think I have seen it done that way before.

[RickS (Rick)]

Congratulations, Andy!

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Originally Posted by uwahl

Nice pics!. What an interesting way of mounting the photos - I don't think I have seen it done that way before.

Originally Posted by RickS

Congratulations, Andy!

Thanks folks for your kind words.

UPDATE: It got even better, I was also named one of the top 3 finalists in the Science/Nature and Environment category. Woo hoo!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Well done Andy, hard to see in the attached photos but they look like they would have looked rather good in person nice certificate too

Looks like there may have been a panel of judges too? Always a nice sign that you did good

Mike

[Oggie (Peter)]

Wow. Great photos. Very imaginative mounting too. Congratulations.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Well done Andy, hard to see in the attached photos but they look like they would have looked rather good in person nice certificate too

Looks like there may have been a panel of judges too? Always a nice sign that you did good

Mike

Thanks for your kind words Mike. Yes there was a panel of 5 judges, and much debating of the content and presentation. Overall it was a very positive experience that I hope to build on when the national awards are on again in Sydney in Sept. It seems that I may have inspired some renewed interest in AP in the pro photography community!

Printing these was a real challenge. I found it's one thing to make nice images for the screen, but I had to reprocess everything from scratch several times to make them work as beautiful prints!

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Andy01

I found it's one thing to make nice images for the screen, but I had to reprocess everything from scratch several times to make them work as beautiful prints!

The David Malin Awards used to be print only entries too, slightly different ball game when it was. While recieving digital entries has obvious logistic advantages - having the finished hard copy result, as entered, actually in front of the judges has much merit... IMO

Mike

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Interesting presentation, suspect its most impressive printed in raised 3D.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Well done Andrew! Congratulations

Jo