The International Wedding Photographer of the Year awards for 2017 are online, and the winners take you a step or two out of staid “traditional” wedding photos. The annual contest closed in December, and the winners were announced this month.
The grand prize winner received $3,000, plus a Nikon D850, Elinchrom ELB 400 Quadra Pack light set, Think Tank Airport Navigator rolling gadget bag, Datacolor Spyder5 Capture Pro color calibration kit, and several other album and printing packages with a total value of $9,125.
You can see all of the winners of the International Wedding Photographers Of The Year at the IWPOTY website. You can also view other top-scoring entries in each category. If you’re looking for some creative ideas as we prepare to head into wedding season, this is a good place to start. Here are a few we particularly enjoyed:
Canadian wedding photographer Erika Mann’s dramatic photo of a rainbow…leading to the bride, captured the grand prize. At first glance, it seems like a dramatic scenic, and the bride — who should seem like the center of attention, is placed small at the bottom of a very big scene. The painterly dramatic lighting is reminiscent of a Hudson School painting.
Erika’s explanation: “Paige and Daniel had a super low key wedding, with the reception taking place in their parent’s backyard, with about 25 guests. Thankfully their parents have one of the most beautiful backyards in the planet, along the banks of Cougar Creek in Canmore, Alberta. After a short, and unpredictable storm, we were treated to the most amazing double rainbow. Lanny and I got low into the creek bed so we could remove the houses, and simplify the frame to the rainbow, mountain and Paige, with her dress billowing in the wind.”
American Paul Woo’s runner-up photo showing a young boy in a red suit and gold bowtie with tears running down his face, with light-suited groomsmen behind him, is a touching and emotional moment. Woo says he was “secretly bawling behind the camera” when he captured the moment.
Says Woo: “The child was the son of the bride. As everyone stood up and waited for the bride to come down the aisle, he started expressing so much emotion. I was solo shooting this wedding and this moment was difficult because I was secretly bawling behind the camera, and had to prioritize this moment over the bride coming down the aisle. Yes, I got both photos, but I knew this moment was THE moment. I decided to enter the image because everyone talks about timeless and epic photos, and to me it wasn’t about scenic places or post processing. What truly is timeless are moments.”
Other eye-catching and intriguing photos included this unconventional “Couple Portrait” category winner by Jayme Lang of Canada.
“I love having the opportunity to get creative with something seeming so ordinary, like a parking garage,” Lang says. “I was lucky that [the couple was] trusting enough to lay on the ground with their wedding attire…”
Winning the Black & White category, more raw emotion was captured by US photographer Bruno Sauma, whose photo of the father-daughter dance showed the bride shedding a tear. “I am so proud I could capture and share this unique touchable moment,” said Sauma.
Interested in entering your wedding photos? The next competition will be held in late 2018, according to the site.
Top photo © Erika Mann.
