Hot off the press! Chicago wedding photographer: Kenny Nakai of Nakai Photography was featured on Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book Blog! A photoshoot collaboration with Vale of Enna, Sweetchic Events, Pure Kitchen Catering, Art of Imagination, and Write by Mike was a success! A Secret Garden Loft theme filled with gorgeous colors unique pieces!

For more great wedding inspiration…check out Style Me Pretty’s blog (if you haven’t already!). I am thankful to be a wedding photographer listed in their Little Black Book guide…they have such good taste in everything wedding related! =)

If this is your first time visiting my wedding photography blog, check out a one of my favorite weddings from Cabo, Mexico and this engagement session blog post with the same couple!

So yea, if you are in need of a Chicago wedding photographer, feel free to contact me! I would love to hear more about the vision for your wedding! (though I am also available for travel worldwide!) I love working with brides who find me via Style Me Pretty! =)

with love,

Kenny

Contact – Portfolio – Facebook – Twitter
New Chicago Studio in Lincoln Park: 855 W. Blackhawk Chicago, IL 60642 *by appointment only*

I’ve always felt the best way to gauge one’s abilities is to go up against the best.

In the sports world, the champion is crowned when they defeat all the competition. In the wedding photography world…16,000 wedding photographers gather in Las Vegas, NV each year for the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention. Part of the convention is the prestigious 16×20 print competition. Thousands of prints are submitted and judged by the finest, most creative, and best wedding photographers in the WORLD. In the past two years I am thankful to have garnered 10 Accolades of Excellence. These winning photographs are hung on display in a gallery for all to view.

This past year, the judging was pretty fierce. It was humbling to see some of my favorite photographs of the year not win…but at the same time, I saw other phenomenal photographs shot by amazing wedding photographers fail merit an accolade. I have never been so thankful to have these two photographs represent Nakai Photography in a gallery full of the best wedding photographs of the year.

So without further adeu, here are the winning wedding photos!

This photo was from Brittany & Vaido’s engagement photo session back this past fall. It was a perfect day with the leaves a perfect color and hue- You can see more of their engagement session at their engagement photo session blog post.

Titled: A New Season

This is a re-edited photo from Theresa and Bobby’s wedding this past year. Bobby loves comics and kung-fu. So I had this fun and creative photo in mind during our creative portrait time on their wedding day. You can see more of their wedding photos at this blog post.

Titled: Drop Dead Gorgeous

It was great to hear two photographers I really respect, Roberto Venezuela and Michael Greenberg both comment on this photo.

You can see my previous blog posts highlighting past award winning wedding photos. 2010 award winning photos and my 2009 award winning photographs.

Thank you again to all my friends and family who have supported me and believed in my vision and talents as a wedding photographer! I truly am so thankful for everyone and the photography community as well!

with love,

Kenny Nakai
Nakai Photography
855 W. Blackhawk St #104 Chicago, IL 60642

I love the ladies over at Junebug! Junebug is a fabulous wedding blog showcasing style and fashion tips for brides! It is really popular on the west coast, and it is growing in popularity here in the midwest. Junebug also has a Photobug blog – it is a blog dedicated to the best wedding photography and wedding photographers in the industry. Make no mistake, there are many wedding blogs out there…but only a handful have the real deal…ridiculously talented wedding photographers in one collection. I am humbled and honored to be listed as one of the wedding photographers for Illinois on their elite list.

A few days ago, one of my wedding photos from Sharon & Larry’s wedding was featured on Junebug’s “Best of 2010 – That’s Heartbreaking” blog post! Sharon was getting ready at Chicago’s own Sonia Roselli Esthetique in Roger’s Park. I still remember the moment and I am so glad to see the Junebug editors saw and felt the emotions through the photo. It is amazing the range of emotions a woman expresses when she puts on her wedding dress, and I can only begin to imagine the emotions Sharon must have felt.

So feel free to check out the blog post featuring Junebug’s Best of 2010 – That’s Heartbreaking! to find my image! I also want to give a shout out to my friend Kenny Kim who also had a photo featured in the same blog post!

For those that don’t want to click on over, here’s a screenshot of my photo. I am also including a photo by Jerry Ghionis right above mine. And in case you were wondering, Jerry Ghionis is one of the best wedding photographers in the world…it’s ridiculous to have my photo under his. It’s kind of like playing on the same basketball court with All-Stars basketball players. =)

You can see more of Sharon & Larry’s Chicago wedding photos at this blog post.

Thanks so much Junebug for the honor and sharing my imagery with so many others!

with love,

Kenny

Contact – Portfolio – Facebook – Twitter
New Studio! 855 W Blackhawk St Chicago, IL 60642

I’ll admit, I’m really bad at blogging…aside from posting my shoots. I am thankful to have been featured on a number of wedding blogs and a couple Chicago magazines, but I really don’t take the time to share that information- BUT…you need to start somewhere right?

I just got an email from the US editor for Zankyou.com (wedding website and wedding blog). The just featured some of my wedding portfolio photos on their website! This was completely unsolicited and a great way to start off the weekend!

Thanks Kristen for stumbling onto my website and your kind words regarding my photography!

Here’s an excerpt from her post:

I love a dramatic, large-scale wedding photo, and I found myself letting out a breathless “wow” as I scrolled through the portfolio of Chicago-based photographer Kenny Nakai. I mean really – it takes a true artist to make power lines look romantic, no?

I especially love the perspective of the shot above. When you spend so much time focusing on the little details of your wedding, it’s great to have a photographer that can see the ‘big picture’ – literally! – as well as the tight vignettes.

Click here to see the full blog post featuring Chicago based Nakai Photography.

Every year, the best wedding photographers in the world convene upon Las Vegas for the largest wedding photography convention of the year. The Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention is where I go to see what the best wedding photographers, from across the globe, are producing with their imagery.

Each year WPPI holds a 16×20 print competition. This year over 3,500 prints were submitted. The premiere wedding photographers of our industry sit on panels and judge each image. It is an honor to go head to head with the best photographers of the world and see how your imagery holds up. Last year, in my first year of competition, I had three prints win an Accolade of Excellence award. My prints were displayed in a print gallery in Las Vegas and they were published in WPPI’s 2009 Print Album. You can see those three images at this previous blog post: WPPI 2009 – 3 Images receive Accolades of Excellence.

This year, with the most prints entered in the history of WPPI, the print judging was fierce. Much harder than last year. I am proud to say that 7 of my images received an Accolades of Excellence award in the 2010 WPPI 16×20 Print Competition! So without further adieu, here is my official WPPI press release and the winning photos!

Category: Bride and Groom Together
Title: Moving Forward

Category: Bride and Groom Together
Title: Seeking Out, Seeking Within

Category: Bride and Groom Together
Title: Surreal

Category: Bridal Party
Title: A Moment to Themselves

Category: Wedding Details
Title: A Perfect Fit

Category: Wedding Details
Title: Overcoming Gravity

Category: Wedding Photojournalism
Title: Overwhelmed

Thank you to all my family and friends, and most of all my wonderful clients who allow me to create these wonderful imagery. It is their trust in my abilities and vision to create these works of art!

I can’t wait to start the 2010 wedding season! =)

with love,

Kenny Nakai
Nakai Photography

Happy Saturday everyone! I just got back from an awesome workshop in Santa Fe. I am still processing it all. Met some awesome photographers from all over the country who are looking to push their imagery and business to the max! I hope to blog about that in a couple days.

But this morning, I woke up to the WPJA Q4 results. Still groggy from waking up…I started scrolling through the list of winners and found my name listed! I had only previously entered one WPJA contest early last year (winning images post here), but made it a point to enter the Q4 contest after some friends suggested I do so- Photographers from all over the world enter this contest and it is a real honor to have an image place 1st!

So much to do today after being gone for a week, but before I get on with work today, here are the two winning images!

1st Place – Creative Portraits
This photo also won an Award of Excellence at WPPI this year. (see blog post below)

JUDGES COMMENTS: Very clever. Technical is excellent–it could have been sharper, that’s true, but in this case that could have hurt the image. The soft nature of it emphasizes the dreamy quality of the situation. Great lens selection. This works because it has room to breathe.

JUDGES COMMENTS: This image involved creativity, planning and perfect execution. The couple illuminated in the separate elevators were placed perfectly against the graphic of the building.

3rd Place – Cake Cutting

JUDGES COMMENTS: Cutting of the cake is secondary to girls faces. I love the way it’s composed. The two hands and knife cutting the cake frames the girls faces, and lined up nicely.

JUDGES COMMENTS: The photographer made a great choice to focus on the kids watching the cake cutting. I mean, who really cares about the cake? Kids, that’s who. You get a two-fer on this one. Foreground and background. The B&W probably saved this picture from being really distracting color-wise.

Another photo of mine won an [AG]WPJA award early this month.

8th Place – Kids (being kids)

Judge’s Comments: I love the little girl up on her toes. Nice moment.

Thanks for reading…and here’s hoping for more consistent blogging here on out! =)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the largest conference for wedding photographers around the world. Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) is held annually and 10,000+ photographers converged to learn, network and see the latest and greatest in the industry. This is the second straight year I have attended as I continually look to better my imagery, business, and client experience.

Later on this weekend I will post some pictures from the event, but I wanted to blog about the most exciting part of this years conference. Three of my images were selected to receive an “Accolade of Excellence!”

This 16×20 print competition is held over two days, and only the best of the entries receive this honor. Out of the thousands that were submitted, mine was one of the couple hundred to hang in the gallery. To see my images hung next to the likes of some of my favorite wedding photographers was a surreal feeling.

So without further ado…these are the three that received the honor!

Thank you to all my family, friends, and clients who have supported me through all of this, with a special shout out to my friend and colleague Kenny Kim who has been with me from the beginning. I couldn’t have done it without ALL of your support, encouragement and love. Please share this honor with me,

with love,

Kenny Nakai

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Tonight just got a little exciting!

Earlier this year, I entered a competition sponsored by WPJA.com (Wedding Photojournalist Association) and Brides.com. I always enjoy viewing the winning images from WPJA competitions as the judges’ comments push the photojournalistic aspect of my photography. I’ve actually never entered a photography competition before and am surprised/excited/estatic to find out that two of my images were selected as “Best in Show”!

Both of these images were taken during the 2007 wedding season-

Here’s the image that won 7th place in the “Culture & Religious Customs” category. Here’s a link to see the image on Brides.com

Taken from the website:

JUDGES COMMENTS: The woman has an intense passion and spiritual focus that no one seems to notice but the photographer.

The image that won 10th place in the “Kids” category. Here’s a link to see the image on Brides.com

Taken from the website:

JUDGES COMMENTS: The photographer captured a sweet moment. This little girl is so adorable with her side-glance at the man kissing her.

I feel so honored as there are some great images in this competition. And this could not have come at a better time as I have been considering entering other competitions this winter. I guess I will take the time to enter these competitions!

Thanks again WPJA/Brides for this recognition and supporting great photography in our industry!