Posted by Mike Maples on June 30, 2006 at 10:59 PM
It's a proud day for me! My beautiful wife, Valerie, was notified today that one of her images has made it into the final round of the Nature’s Best Photography 2006 International Photography Awards competition! I'm beaming and she's in disbelief and muttering something about how it should have been one of mine instead of hers ...she just doesn't get it. She hasn't figured out that I am so much happier that she is in the finals, MAN this is great.
Many of you have never seen her photos because I still can't get her to post. She shuns the limelight. I actually had to talk her into entering the contest. She has only been doing nature photography (or any serious photography for that matter) for a bit over 18 months and only as a part time hobby since we both still work full time and our photography is an evening and weekend thing. I gave her a D70 for Christmas in 2005 to replace her pocket digital "point and shoot" and had to explain what aperature and film speed were. She knew nothing about depth of field or shutter speed or anything else about an SLR. She's come a long way!
Other than the County Fair last Fall (where she "put a whoopin" on her competition) this is the only photography contest she has ever entered. Please join me in wishing her luck in the finals.
Posted by David Redding on June 30, 2006 at 11:28 PM
Absolutely, Valerie, congratulations! It's an honor, just to be considered for that publication! I do hope that you consider posting some of images here, along with Mike (of whom I'm a big fan) because, to honest I am curious to see your work. But, also to be quite honest,
I for one, could use the help. Again, congratulations, Tim
Bravo! Mike I wish your wife Valerie all the best in the finals of the Nature's Best Photography 2006 International Photography Awards. Congratulations.
Congratulations Mike to you and Valerie. I have the same problem with my wife. She has a much more artistic eye than I do but she is very shy and won't make that initial step. Sounds like this may just be the motivation for Valerie to really shine!
My sincerest thanks to everyone for congrats and well wishes. I'm just proud to have made it to the finals. We'll see what happens in the final judging...
My biggest thanks goes to my wonderful husband, Mike, for being such a great partner and supporter. He has taught me everything I know and I really wish he had been the one to have made it to the finals in this contest because he works a lot harder at it and he most definitely knows a lot more about photography than I do!
As Bill Stice said, this was definitely some motivation for me. I've been taking pictures all weekend and actually doing something with them besides just letting them sit on my computer. Needless to say, with all the positive comments here, I was shamed into posting again so I have posed one in macros so far. I promise to do more, but don't expect any super-duper photos - I'm just an average, amateur photographer and got lucky that the judges saw something in my photo that they liked.
WOW! Well done Val. Being considered for Nature's Best is one of those biggies that doesn't happen very often. Steve Freleigh's standards are very high so being a finalist is a real vote for the quality of your work. I hope this inspires you to post more on NPN.
Hi Mike and especially VAL!! How nice for the two of you to be each other's best support!! Val, it is so FUN!! to be a finalist isn't it? I don't remember if I was a finalist or was just kept on for consideration (I think just the latter) but either way my "Heavenly Light" made it into the "Best of 2002" book and I was still VERY psyched!!!) So, congrats to you VAl and I hope you go FAR!!
Discussion
21 repliesMany of you have never seen her photos because I still can't get her to post. She shuns the limelight. I actually had to talk her into entering the contest. She has only been doing nature photography (or any serious photography for that matter) for a bit over 18 months and only as a part time hobby since we both still work full time and our photography is an evening and weekend thing. I gave her a D70 for Christmas in 2005 to replace her pocket digital "point and shoot" and had to explain what aperature and film speed were. She knew nothing about depth of field or shutter speed or anything else about an SLR. She's come a long way!
Other than the County Fair last Fall (where she "put a whoopin" on her competition) this is the only photography contest she has ever entered. Please join me in wishing her luck in the finals.
I for one, could use the help. Again, congratulations, Tim
Woo hoo!
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
Colin
Nathan
My biggest thanks goes to my wonderful husband, Mike, for being such a great partner and supporter. He has taught me everything I know and I really wish he had been the one to have made it to the finals in this contest because he works a lot harder at it and he most definitely knows a lot more about photography than I do!
As Bill Stice said, this was definitely some motivation for me. I've been taking pictures all weekend and actually doing something with them besides just letting them sit on my computer. Needless to say, with all the positive comments here, I was shamed into posting again so I have posed one in macros so far. I promise to do more, but don't expect any super-duper photos - I'm just an average, amateur photographer and got lucky that the judges saw something in my photo that they liked.
Thanks again for all the nice comments! Val