Best Wedding Photographer of the Year
 | The year started well. Won first place in the Latvian Wedding Photographers Association annual competition. The trophy shelf got enriched with the first cup and 9 diplomas. Further details about the competition and wedding photos that brought the victory. |
LKFA.
For the first time, thanks to the Latvian Wedding Photographers Association, at the end of 2009 a wedding photography competition was held, where any photographer (not only LKFA members) could submit their wedding photos from all previous years. I was very happy that something like this was happening in Latvia. Slowly the wedding photography sphere is moving in the right direction. The jury turned out to be well-known photographers in Latvia: Valdis Brauns, Elmārs Rudzītis, Linda Ratuta, Gunārs Binde and Sergejs Getņikovs. Also the regulations allowed sending older photos, because such a competition was held for the first time. I warn, next year you will be able to submit wedding photos photographed in 2010. Unfortunately, I myself won't be able to participate because I will be on the jury. So hurry up, take great photos for newlyweds this year and for yourselves and participate!
Next year I think victory will come not only to the most talented, but also to whoever has many weddings in 2010. The more weddings, the more chances to catch great moments. I recommend wedding photographers pay more attention to reportage and details. Look for the frame, wait for the right moment and shoot! Don't waste time waiting for the ceremony, but look for events, details, emotions etc. The photo that won 1st place in the category "Children" was taken exactly that way. I could have sat at the table waiting for the end, but my conscience wouldn't let me, because I want to bring home many frames that I would like to hang myself on my wall!
Competition.
It was mercilessly hard to choose photos from my entire portfolio. Good work is plenty, can't send everything. I spent quite a lot of time to from the good select the very best according to my understanding. I know that any photo competition with jury participation is a lottery (huge thanks to organizers that it wasn't the usual sms type or self-voting, or internet voting which would only promote spam on draugiem.lv). There were 7 categories in the competition and I thought it was obligatory to submit a photo in each. It was very hard with the categories "Details" and "Ceremony". They're not my strongest sides.
43 authors with 182 photographs participated in the competition. It's interesting to see how many photos were submitted in each category:
Children - 20 photosYou can see what many wedding photographers lack :) If you want to participate this year, this is a small cheat sheet of what to shoot and where to look for interesting frames. Observing all photos in person I was a bit disappointed, because 70% of photos were very simple and I myself have photographed such at every wedding and they seem like everyday things, but look - this is the best frame for a competition. When selecting photos for any competition, I recommend inviting a friend or acquaintance to give their opinions on the selected photos. You need to listen to other people's evaluation and analyze it. Only don't do this through the Internet intermediary, often on the Internet for a bad photo they will give you an objectively good evaluation. An objective evaluation will be in person speaking face to face.
Ceremony - 12 photos
Details - 22 photos
Emotions 35 photos
Preparation - 17 photos
Newlyweds - 49 photos
Portrait - 27 photos
Here you can read the competition regulations and how photos were evaluated.
Wedding Photos.
I won three 1st places in categories "Newlyweds", "Children" and "Emotions" with these photos:
1st place in category "Newlyweds"
1st place in category "Emotions"
1st place in category "Children"
These three photos were decisive for winning. Actually I was very lucky, because I hesitated whether to send the children's photo. I also won two 2nd places and three 3rd places:
2nd place in category "Newlyweds"
2nd place in category "Portrait"
3rd place in category "Emotions"
3rd place in category "Portrait"
3rd place in category "Ceremony"
At the awards ceremony I told about my photos. How they were obtained, how much post-processing, etc. I hope the listeners were interested.
All photos can be viewed here.
Awards and results can be viewed here.
Big thanks to the jury, organizers and people who entrusted this wonderful day to me :)
Wedding photographer Andrejs Zavadskis - https://zavadskis.photo/wedding
Results
Competition awards. From l.r.: Imants Urtāns, Dmitrijs Mokejevs, Andrejs Zavadskis. Photo: Uģis GrantiņšCompetition results:
Best photography in category "Children":
I place - Andrejs Zavadskis
II place - Mārcis Baltskars
III place - Sandis Vāgners
Best photography in category "Ceremony":
I place - Imants Urtāns
II place - Rolfs Vendiņš
III place - Andrejs Zavadskis
Best photography in category "Details":
I place - Rolfs Vendiņš
II place - Džeina Saulīte
III place - Sandis Vāgners
Best photography in category "Emotions":
I place - Andrejs Zavadskis
II place - Mārcis Baltskars
III place - Andrejs Zavadskis
Best photography in category "Preparation":
I place - Imants Urtāns
II place - Mārcis Baltskars
III place - Sandis Vāgners
Best photography in category "Newlyweds":
I place - Andrejs Zavadskis
II place - Andrejs Zavadskis
III place - Imants Strangots
III place - Mārcis Baltskars
Best photography in category "Portrait":
I place - Imants Urtāns
II place - Andrejs Zavadskis
III place - Andrejs Zavadskis
The title of 2009 Best Wedding Photographer was won by Andrejs Zavadskis.
2009 award. Photo: Andrejs Zavadskis
43 photographers with 182 photographs participated in the competition.
More than half of the participants came to the meeting, where discussions about various topics related to wedding photography themes unfolded. The authors of photographs told about the creation of the most interesting photographs, about the technical methods used, about goals, about the stories of the photographs.
Board members provided information about the jury's work, about how the photographs were evaluated and how the winners were determined. An opinion was expressed that many good works remained outside the jury's selected photographs and the LKFA board will publish the best of them separately on the website.
An opinion was also expressed that the evaluation system should be improved in the future. In this competition, evaluation was done by the jury viewing photographs in printed form with the option to simultaneously view them on a computer monitor. The specific authors of the photographs were not known to the jury. Selection and evaluation lasted approximately 2 hours. Possibly this time is insufficient for a thorough analysis of photographs, therefore a proposal was made for future competitions that jury members receive in advance a CD with competition photographs (with the condition that the author of the photograph is not indicated), so that for the final evaluation the jury members come with an already prepared evaluation. Similarly, proposals were made to change the composition of the jury, including a well-known foreign wedding photographer. It was emphasized that not all jury members need to be photographers, it would be good if the jury also included people with experience in evaluating artwork or editors. It should be noted that next year, one of the competition jury members according to the competition regulations will be this year's competition winner Andrejs Zavadskis.