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!