Award // Fearless Photographers
So honoured to receive another Fearless Photographers award.
Fearless Photographer Awards first started in 2010 and completely changed the perception of wedding photography in the industry. Not only did it showcase bold and ‘fearless’ photography for couples looking for something different to the more traditional style of photography. Fearless also inspired a new generation of wedding photographers.
It spurred photographers to push the boundaries and shoot with more freedom and dare to try something different. Well, that’s my interpretation of it anyway.
Shortly after I started shooting weddings I discovered Fearless Photographers through a photography forum (www.fredmiranda.com). I had only shot a few weddings and was eager to learn more and was reading everything I could about wedding photography. There was a lot of chat about Fearless from different forums and most of the comments were in awe of how different the photography was.
I was hooked, so much so in 2012, I flew to Scottsdale, Arizona of my first of 3 Fearless Conferences. What an experience, hanging out and talking to many of my heroes in the wedding photography industry. Ben and Erin Chrisman, Todd Laffler, Anna Kuperberg, Jacklyn Greenberg, Andrew Mejia + Katrina Wallace, Sergio, Huy Nguyen to name but a few. But one of the main draws for me was Tony Hoffer. I met Tony in Memphis in 2011 at another workshop and was at worship level 11 at this stage!
After the 2012 conference, I left with a new passion and drive for my photography, I was so inspired listening to the speakers and hanging out with the 120+ attendees.
After I got home I started shooting weddings with a different mindset and a creative toolkit ingrained into my brain. I plucked up the courage and entered some images into the Fearless Awards. Midway through 2014 and with 50+ weddings behind me since the Conference, I found myself with 5 Fearless Awards and ranked the #1 UK Fearless Photographer. With the serious amount of talent in the UK, this was very humbling.
Skip forward to 2018 I’ve finally got into double figures with my Fearless Awards. An achievement I never felt possible back in 2012 when I started my journey out to Scottsdale.
Each round when the winning images get posted I’m left speechless that with every round, the standard somehow manages to surpass the previous round. It’s unbelievable and inspiring the amount of talent there is in this group of Fearless Photographers. Globally there are over 3000 members, 300 of those are in the UK. It’s amazing to be involved in this community and I am forever thankful to be apart of it.
So what does it mean to be an award-winning wedding photographer?
It’s part of being a community. Most wedding photographers like myself work alone a lot so it’s really important to find a great community to share ideas and support each other – that’s what I get from Fearless.
Having awards also instills confidence and trust for your clients, they see that you are established in the industry and are producing work consistently at a high level.
Below are my 10 Fearless Photographer Awards.
The next Fearless Conference in Europe is in Aachen, Germany. Looks like it’s going to be a good one. Get it booked in the diary, 27th-28th March 2019.