We just got a great email from Sonali & Sean about their wedding images.  Their wedding will be on the blog soon, but I wanted to post this comment.  I love our clients.  They are the greatest.  Absolutely.

Thank you so much for sending through the photos – there are so many and they truly are beautiful.

I think the mark of a good photographer is one that can capture the moment but the mark of a truly great photographer is one who can capture the moment so well that you re-live the memory each time and the pictures actually evoke an emotion – you truly have accomplished this in our photos – thank you so much – as i was looking through i was laughing and crying and just taking it all in all over again – we cannot thank you enough for giving us these memories that will last a lifetime.

No Sonali & Sean, thank YOU!  Thank you for being such awesome clients with amazing families and thanks for your wonderful hospitality.

I placed 1st in the ceremony category in ISPWP’s wedding contest with the above image of Purvee during one of her ceremonies.  The judges’ comments were, “Great color and great light, a tough ceremony to shoot good job” and “Great moment and nice colors.”

And tough it was!  The series I got was definitely an example of making the best of a difficult situation.  I’d never seen so many people in one house, and it was extremely difficult to move around.  At this point, I’d found myself “behind the action,” so to speak, the typical view you’d expect, and there was just no time to plow through and get around.  We don’t set things up or do any do-overs.  When I saw this starting to happen, I dropped to the ground and fired away, resulting in one of the most unique shots of the entire three days of celebrations.  Sometimes when you depart from the expected viewpoint, you find the real story.

I also placed third in the category “Motion and Movement” with the image below.  I also got an amazing series from this fun mishap!

I not only squeezed an image into the winner’s circle in PDN’s annual wedding photography issue, but I was also profiled in an article on destination weddings. They chose to talk about my trip to Nigeria for Chichi & Emeka’s wedding. It was a very well written article. If you’re not familiar with PDN, it’s pretty much the photography industry trade magazine to read. In case you want to check it out, it’s called Photo District News, or PDN on the cover. It’s in the April issue.

Also, I’ll be heading back to Nigeria in November & December for a double wedding. More to come on that! We are finalizing details now. It’s going to be incredible! I can’t wait to get back!

The 2008 PDN Top Knots winning images are on the loose now, and we’re in!  Chichi once again pulls through for us and provides us with a winner!  I can’t wait to get my issue, because there’s more to come.  For now, flip through all the winning images at PDN’s Top Knots 2008 site.

This is the second time I’ve entered an image in Photo District News’ Top Knots contest. It will be in the April edition of PDN. This is the second time they’ve chosen one of mine as a winner. Why is this such an honor? Because they continually see and work with the best photography in the world on a daily basis. They have their finger on the pulse of the photographic community as a whole, most of it not even closely related to wedding photography. So it’s a great honor when a wedding image crosses the lines photographic genres seem to make. This is one of my favorite “getting ready” images ever, and I wouldn’t have it if Chichi didn’t think enough of me to take me all the way to Nigeria to photograph her ceremony. This image also placed 4th in the 1Q 2007 WPJA contest. This amazing experience continues to resurface in my life, and I thank Chichi and Emeka greatly for the fond memories that are conjured up every time an image is recognized, every time someone emails me out of the blue complimenting me on this coverage, and every time Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe or Oliver de Coque comes up on my iTunes rotation. If you could see me doing the happy dance right now, you’d totally laugh your ass off. I’m that bad.

The WPJA contest is one tough contest to crack. The shots you think would never be singled out do well, and the shots you are sure will do well never see the light of day. I was fortunate enough to have a 4th placement with the image above in the “Getting Ready” category. Between the amazing hot lighting and Chichi rockin’ the looks, this is one shot that is hard to overlook. Here are the judge’s comments:

“I like the way the bride is framed in the photo so your eye is drawn right to her. Her expression, her friends, her clothes, and the way her hand is touching her hair all work to capture the process of getting ready in a very natural way.”

I also got an 11th place slot in the “Ceremony” category with the following image:

Here are the judge’s comments for this one:

“I loved the layers and the energy of this photograph. The unique ceremony did stand out, but so did the intimate way the photographer shot it. Wonderful picture.”

And in the perfect timing department, I just received this email from an admirer of this wedding I shot in Nigeria. I will tell you, it totally rox my sox when a stranger takes time out of their busy day to email me such flattering words. I’m truly humbled!!! Anne writes:

“I just wanted to say thank you for shooting Africa in such a positive light and sharing the beauty of our people and our culture…..those pictures really captured the emotions and joy of the day and celebrations. I felt like I was there peeping into this very private precious ceremony. Not many photographers are able to shoot like this. Most rely on photoshop and no real talent.

And I also managed to go to your home page and was blown away by this one black and white shot of a bride in the woods and the camera pointed towards her back and the other chapel pic with the cathedral veil!! WOW! those are the kinds of shots that actually make you speak out loud…I was like WHOA! loudly because of the dramatic shot!!! OK enough of my chit chatter I can talk!

Thank you for uplifting me!

~Anne”

Thank YOU Anne! It means a lot! It’s wild getting an unsolicited comment touching on something I hold dear, ability over Photoshop effects. I make a point for the work on my site to be free of trendy and flashy Photoshop effects like fake motion blurs, extreme contrast and color treatments and the like.

Stay tuned! We are shooting Chichi & Emeka’s stateside wedding this month!

Climie + Co was approached by the folks at Brides.com to provide images of Amanda & Christopher’s wedding to be featured in the Real Weddings section. They had a gorgeous fall wedding in Big Canoe, Georgia. I love the story of how she bought her husband for $17. Congratulations Amanda & Christopher!

When I was approached by WedPix Magazine to give my viewpoint in an article titled Is Wedding Photojournalism a Fad?, I was excited to jump at the chance. I very much respect the principles of the organization, so I was honored to be chosen to weigh in. There is much discussion amongst photographers as to what constitutes genuine wedding photojournalism. Many seem to think the word has been diluted from the appropriation of the term by those who do not really practice it. I tend to feel the same. I have not used the term “photojournalistic” on my website for a very long time. Many have become genuinely confused as to what it really means, so it was best to leave it out and let the work sell itself. I will have more philosophical ramblings in the future when it comes to traditional versus wedding photojournalism and how we got to this point, but that is for another, much longer post.

What I love most about the WPJA is that the organization does with images what we, as an industry, could not do with words. The WPJA has effectively trained the eye to our approach when it comes to wedding photography, so I can trust that the clients who inquire through the WPJA are in the camp of those who really do want a heavily documentary approach to their wedding photography. This unified view is at the heart of the success of the organization. I could not ask for a better organization to be a part of.

Dear Marc & Zack,

We honestly cannot say “thank you” enough times to let you know how happy thrilled we are with our wedding photos! Shot after shot you are, hands down, the best photographers we’ve come across. Our photos are so beautiful. Not only were they of the greatest color and quality, but they really captured the feelings of the day. Steve’s mom commented on how you seemed to be in 50 places at once. Every time she picked her camera up, you were already there capturing the image.

We almost wish that we’d gotten married sooner, so that we could’ve recommended you to our friends before you were booked up!

Thank you for being incredible photographers and for capturing our wedding day so perfectly. If there is ever a time you’d like to use us as a referral, we would love to do that for you (and the future couples-to-be)! All the best,

Anna & Steve

On a whim I entered one of my favorite images of the year into the Photo District News Top Knots contest. This shot happened so quickly. I was setting up for group shots on the beach when I heard someone yell, “Look!” There was no time to think, only time to react. I got two frames before they had flown out of frame. This was the first. The formation had broken up to have nowhere near the impact of this shot by the second frame, and they were just a fraction of a second apart.

I never expected it to place, honestly. It is a popular contest that reaches worldwide. When someone called and told me I’d not only placed, but taken Best In Category, I nearly created my own news event on I-285. It is a huge honor to be singled out as best in category by this magazine. Oh, and it came with a bunch of sweet prizes.