DISCLAIMER: A little shameless self-promotion here…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the three most prestigious and well-recognized organizations for wedding photographers are the following: Fearless Photographers, International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP), and Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA). Lauren Brimhall Photography is a member of all of them. Didn’t mean to let the WPJA account expire but I’ll fix that ASAP!
Here’s the kicker, though. This industry is highly competitive, and there’s always some photographer out there just itching to tell you what’s wrong with your work. As a result, we spent a lot of time soul searching and honing our craft on a technical and artistic level before we even felt READY to compete in any organization at all. We have been wedding photographers for over six years and didn’t join Fearless until less than three years ago, ISPWP just two years ago and WPJA just last year.
In that short span of time, we have amassed SIX top 20 ISPWP awards (loving their new site btw!) FIVE Fearless Awards, and TWO WPJA awards (though I’ll admit I forget to submit to the latter more often than not even when I remember to pay the dues!). For the state of New Jersey we have catapulted to the position of the number-two ranked wedding photographers in the two organizations we compete in most (Fearless & ISPWP).
Anyway, onto the news, my heart swelled with pride when we recently took home our two latest awards. First we won 11th place in the highly competitive ISPWP Kids Category. I love these contest judges… and how their sense of humor totally meshes with mine!
Then, the icing on the cake was nabbing another Fearless award. Fearless receives on average 15,000 submissions per round and has quite possibly the most members of any photography organization I am aware exists. Less than 200 images per round are graced with that little black logo that says “Fearless Award” that makes any photographer not be able to resist straight-up beaming from ear to ear.
Finally, of these mere Collection 28, 184 Fearless-Award-winning images, Huffington Post selected just 25 to post in an article, “25 Award Winning Photos You Just Have To See,” and we even made THAT CUT. Frankly, I feel unworthy of that one… but I’ll take it.
I just love how these organizations keep my drive going, because as the competition gets stiffer (more members fewer awards, etc.) … you just have to keep getting better to win. And we fully intend to keep doing just that.