The 2013 APPA Australian Professional Photography Awards have come and gone for another year. This was the third time I have entered the APPA awards and it was the first time I have had to do so remotely. I was in Greenland leading a fourteen day photography expedition during the entry process so had to select my images and have prints made before the updated 2013 rules where published and before entries were officially open. My thanks to Kim at the National AIPP office for looking after and entering my prints in my absence. This was also the first time I entered the Science, Environment and Nature Category in lieu of the Landscape category. This was an interesting experiment in that the criteria for judging is very different to the Landscape Category. Pretty much anything goes these days in terms of what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to Photoshop work in the landscape category. Extensive use of textures and multi-image composites are the norm rather than the exception which has seen the boundaries of this category somewhat blur between Landscape, Fine Art and Illustrative. The Science, Nature and Environment category on the other hand has far more rigid rules on post production and as a result I felt this category would perhaps be more appropriate to my general minimalist post production techniques. This year I chose to enter four images from Antarctica that I felt conveyed a feeling of wildlife in the landscape in brooding overcast conditions. I was fortunate to receive a Silver Award and three Bronze Awards (all of which fell one point short of Silver) for the four prints I entered. All four prints were made on Moab’s Exhibition Lustre paper.

This year also marked my 2nd year as a full member of the AIPP which meant I was finally able to receive my Associateship status. An Associateship is awarded to full members of the AIPP who accrue 5 or more points within 4 consecutive years at the APPA awards. I had actually accrued sufficient points for this award in my first year of APPA entry but had to wait for the mandatory two year period to elapse before I could receive the award (which I did last night at the APPA dinner). My current APPA points total sits just a few points away now from a Master of Photography award and I look forward to the challenge of banking these last few points in my fourth year of entry at the 2014 APPA awards next year.