WE have had a significant budget cut for these awards meaning no pro togs could be used.
I was offered the 'gig' based mainly on strength of a few colleagues who liked a few of my kids sports pics on my desk!!
I knocked it back first up because I knew my technical skills are pretty limited if they wanted images good enough for public display on the big screen and for a booklet.
Long and short of it was I ended up doing it - I loved the travel and meeting lots of fantastic people, I stuffed up a number of 'shoots' through combo of fatigue, panic and not being familiar with my new toys (D700 and 24 - 70)..but it has inspired me to keep at it and to take these sort of opportunities if they ever do arise.
In the end I got a lot of positive comments, (more about the mood of some of the pics rather than the technical quality I feel) but one of the things that made an impact was the importance that photography can play in our day to day lives.
One of the finalists whom I did two shoots with died suddenly of a heart attack just 5 days later. His family were really thankful that they had these photos since "he always took photos but never let anyone take them of him". They used many of the pics at his funeral and they passed on some nice comments.
A few of the pics are being used in local papers and one may even get into SA Life magazine which would be pretty amazing!
It was a great chance to get out of my normal work behind a desk.
A few of the pics here show that there is just so much to learn...but hey..the journey should be fun! BTW the D700 is great to use but I should have used my 70 -200 more as I get better results with it generally.
Any CC welcome. All cropped from originals. Looking at them online I also realise how bad my PS skills are as well - these just don't look right !
