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

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

Here are couple images from their engagement shoot we shot last summer. This first image won an “Accolade of Excellence” at the International WPPI 16×20 print competition in Las Vegas last year. You can see the rest of the images from their engagement session here.

Jeremy mentioned that this image was the wallpaper for his computer- =)

***there are 51 images posted here, there are 81 posted on my facebook page. Feel free to ‘friend’ me if you can’t see them in facebook!***

As you will see from their day, Jo has an eye for details. Even with this first shot…check out the doorknobs in her bedroom closet! Doorknobs from Anthropologie (of course!)

When I saw these Chinese paintings, I had a creative idea for her wedding dress photo!

I love the colors in her shoe shot-

Floral design and execution was done by uber talented Grace from Vale of Enna. She really out did herself on this wedding…the bouquets and centerpieces were top notch! A unique bouquet for sure!

Mother placing the veil. I love these moments-

It was a bit warm in the room, so Jo was trying to stay cool in the hallway-

The moment of anticipation!

The ceremony was held at the Naperville Congregational Church

Look at his smile! I think he’s a little happy…just a little. =)

After arriving at the Hyatt Lodge, we headed out for our creative portrait session. I love the light and shadows in this image-

The sun would play hide and seek behind the clouds, and we took advantage of the rays when we could-

I ran across the pond to grab this shot on a bridge connecting the Hyatt Lodge to a business building.

Tried something new – though it felt a bit awkward posing for this shot, I think it came out great!

I love this portrait of the two of them.

Inside the Hyatt Lodge…

I walked around the Hyatt Lodge grounds and couldn’t resist, I pulled them out for a couple pictures during the reception-

Thanks you guys for an awesome day! Even for standing in goose poop! =) I look forward to seeing what He has in store for you both!

with love,

Kenny Nakai

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! =)