Is winning wedding photography awards beneficial to future brides and grooms, the short answer is yes… Flexing my creative muscle, with my eyes on high alert for the slightest sniff of a possible extraordinary wedding image, instantly lifts my wedding photography A game. Winning awards has nothing to do with my hungry ego, it’s all about my imposter syndrome issues and proving to future couples that I have skills. Who wouldn’t want an award winning wedding photographer splurging their creative juices all over their celebrations.
Now here’s the U turn and the more serious section of this blog post. The most shared, downloaded or printed images I photograph at a wedding are the informal family and friends pics. Forget about the stop you in your tracks, this photographer is a creative genius moments. The bride laughing with her grandad, the groom hugging his mam or the dog excitedly jumping up at the bride and groom, will always supersede (and rightly so) any of my award winning wedding photography.
So why enter awards in the first place? If you didn’t know already, creatives are both passionate and sensitive, seeking reassurance is both a blessing and a curse. For the sake of this blog I’m going to call myself an artist and the world of art is very well populated with highly sensitive people. I’ve been photography weddings for over 20 years and I definitely know what I’m doing, but that doesn’t make me immune to all the traits of a creative, the upside of this, is that I’m always kept on my toes. Entering awards and more importantly winning awards is a way of convincing myself that I must be doing something right. This feeling is obviously short lived and then I get straight back on the creative horse and start again, trying to prove myself to me and others. The plus side of this predicament for you, is that you always get the best most motivated version of me at your wedding.
If you’d love to know more about my approach to storytelling wedding photography, please get in touch.
In a world full of noise, thanks for taking time to read this blog…