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The AIPP 2016 Epson Victorian Professional Photography Awards were held here in Melbourne Victoria in February this year. This was the first time in several years that I was unable to attend due to overseas workshop and expedition commitments. Truth be told, I actually hadn’t planned to enter this year. My schedule has been so hectic that I really didn’t have ample time to devote to making prints for the awards. I felt a bit guilty about not entering at the last minute as print competitions are near and dear to my heart and I want to support the local industry and the AIPP. So in the end I opted to enter a finished print from the 2015 APPA awards along with seven other prints that I had been working on and felt were in varying stages of being finished. I split the prints across the Science, Wildlife and Wild Places category and the Documentary category. I was pleasantly surprised to find on my return that not only had the majority of the prints scored Silver or Silver with Distinction awards, but that I was also a finalist in both the categories.

What caught my attention this year on my return to Australia was that a print I previously entered at the National Level in the 2015 APPA Australian Professional Photography Awards that had scored a high Silver with Distinction (falling just short of Gold) (and was part of the winning portfolio for 2015 Global Arctic Photographer of the Year) only scored a Silver at the State level (go figure..) Just goes to show how subjective awards can be at times. The awarded images are included below: