London Photographers | Portrait Photographer of the Year

Colin Powell said, “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.“

Pure truth and I try to apply it daily as a photographer.

Last weekend, I attended the PPOC-ON provincial convention in Toronto. The weekend was chock full of speakers, trades and, of particular interest to those of us who entered the Provincial Salon in August, the annual awards banquet.

First, the speakers: Bryan Caporicci and Robert Nowell presented “Pricing for Profit”, their signature series on proper pricing for photography businesses, and Claude Brazeau presented his take on wedding photography. Claude’s a great guy and his imagery is top shelf.

The ‘big gun’ of the convention was Joe McNally, one of the biggest names in modern-day imaging. He spoke on both days, detailing his career, both the ups and downs, and demoing many of his lighting styles.

Listening to Joe speak about his time with National Geographic and Life Magazine, I found myself inspired. Not because of the nature of the jobs, but because of the possibilities in this industry. With photography, anything is possible and the only limits are those that you place on yourself. Hard work and determination, the kind that Joe put into his fantastic career, will take you where you want to go. At least, that’s what I took out of it.

The biggest moment of the weekend, for me, came during the awards banquet. As a result of the images that I entered in the Provincial Image Salon, I was awarded both the 2012 Portrait Photographer  of the Year and the Tibor Horvath Award of Excellence, in addition to Judge’s Choice for Fine Art, Best in Class for Fine Art and Best in Class for Figure Study.

It was a jaw-dropping evening.

Previous image salons had shown me that my photography needed to reach a higher level in order to succeed in competition. Taking the judge’s comments to heart, studying with high calibre photographers and focusing daily on the fine details of the craft has been a large part of the past year for me. I was very happy to discover that Mr. Powell was, indeed, correct.

Preparation, hard work and learning from failure: my continuing mantra moving forward.

Cheers!

(all event images courtesy of Sébastien Lavallée)