2008 ALLIE AWARD for BEST EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY!

Finally!  After five years, I have once again won the Allie Award for Best Event Photography! 

I have entered this prestigous competion for the Atlanta event industry every year since 2002.  I have been nominated 6 out of 7 years and won the award in 2002 and 2003.  The calibre of this event gets better and better every year so I’m completely honored to be the recipient once again.  Our whole team works hard at every single event in hopes that we can give award winning images to all of our clients!

Accepting the award with my mom, Bea

The Allie Awards are the “Oscars” for the Atlanta special events industry and were started in 1991.  Hosted by two organizations, NACE and ISES, each year hundreds of events are entered in various categories to compete for the “Best” of their category.  Entries are judged blind by a panel of representatives from chapters of NACE and ISES located in other states.

Each year that I enter, I must choose ONE event – it can be a wedding, corporate, or private social event held within the previous year- to showcase my company’s photography coverage of that event.  Then, I must also submit a detailed written description of the event, our responsibility, and our challenges and obstacles providing our services.  We our required to also address with our images and description specifics of the event such as the catering, the decor, the activities and audio-visuals.  But here’s the kicker:  we are only allowed to enter ten (10) photos of this event!  Only ten images to show our coverage and how we visually captured the event!

The ballroom at the Cobb Energy Center where the Allies were held this year.

Since I am primarily a wedding photographer and specialize in weddings, I tend to enter a wedding every year as my Allie entry.  This year, I chose to enter the wedding of Anna & John which we shot last October 13th at Barnsley Gardens.  Once again, this year’s event that I chose was coordinated and designed by Kiersten Pierce of Gooseberry  Creative Events.  Last year, I entered Julie & Paul’s wedding that was also coordinated by Kiersten.  We were nominated but did not win.  Kiersten ALWAYS gives me incredible events to photograph!!!!  Thank you so much Keirsten!  It was a thrill to have you there supporting me Sunday!

I was so nervous this year because when the nominations came out a few weeks ago, I got to see who else was nominated in my category:  Nadia D Photography and PWP Studios, Patrick Williams. I was familiar with their work and they are excellent photographers, too!  I want to give a shout out to both of them for their kind words Sunday evening.  It is an honor to be nominated with you both.

My friend Mark Brickman and his wife Becky (Baker’sMan) won another Allie, too!!!!

What also made this year’s Allies so special was that we got to sit with Mark & Becky of Baker’sMan, Inc AND Marjorie Pruitt of DecoMarj – AND ALL THREE OF US WON OUR CATEGORIES!!!! Whoo hoo!  We had the award winning table!

An award-winning table – all three Allies won at our table.

My good friend, Marjorie Pruitt (DecoMarj) with her Allie for Best Print Piece!

It was an unbelievable night and we definitely all partied hard after that I tell ya.  They hosted a really fun dance party after the awards ceremony and Alicia and I danced our booties off!

I want to thank my mom, Bea of course for supporting me my entire life to follow my dreams.  Alicia Benson, who has been working with us since last year and was immensely crucial to our performance at this wedding and proves herself over and over, and of course my love, Steven…;o)

Me and Steven with the new shelf bling!

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