LINDA Beks’ skill at turning an ordinary image into something extraordinary has seen her crowned the AIPP NSW Professional Photographer of the Year.
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It is the second time the master photographer from Nelson Bay has won the prestigious honour, the first coming in 2013.
The feat is made more remarkable as Ms Beks, from ME Photography, only decided to enter the AIPP NSW Professional Photography Awards just two-and-a-half weeks out from the closing deadline.
“I wasn’t planning on entering this year,” Ms Beks said.
“It is really full on to enter. Every image has to be perfect in every area. And, with winning it before there is extra pressure on you.”
Ms Beks was also asked to judge in the awards, which she said ultimately swayed her decision to enter.
“I thought if I’m going to be a judge it would be weird if I didn’t have anything there.”
After a scurry to brainstorm ideas, shoot the photos, edit and print them to perfection Ms Beks entered four images each in the commercial/fashion and pet/animal categories of the 2016 awards.
Her hard work was ultimately rewarded. Each of Ms Beks’ images in the pet/animal category were awarded, with her image of a cat and a rat pictured from underneath earning gold.
Ms Beks also achieved gold in the commercial/fashion category, where three of the four images she entered were awarded. Her unique and colourful image of a corset and skirt was awarded gold.
“You are expected to have a certain level of work,” Ms Beks said of the awards.
“Awards only go to the extraordinary; beyond the ordinary professional level. It’s extremely hard to win a category, much less overall. And I thought I would never be lucky enough to achieve that [winning overall] again.”
More than 1000 images were submitted into this year’s awards, 835 coming from NSW alone.
The rest were from ACT. Only 20 gold awards were issued to NSW entrants. Ms Beks earned two of those gold awards.
The awards from her body of work were evaluated, leading to Ms Beks being named the overall photographer of the year.
Despite only have two-and-a-half weeks to produce and enter her images, Ms Beks still wanted to push the envelope and try something different.
She decided to shoot animals from underneath a glass pane. She pulled apart of glass sliding door from her home and borrowed a cat from a friend and white rats from a pet shop to photograph.
Additionally, she borrowed a duck and a dog she spotted while walking along Bagnalls Beach for a studio shoot.
“I met this dog at Bagnalls Beach and had this cool idea,” Ms Beks said. “Dogs tend to rip stuff apart so I set up a shot of this dog with flowers on a chair then I ripped it apart and put the dog back on it.”
For the fashion section Ms Beks used Port Stephens girls to shoot different styles of clothes modelling.
“It’s great to be able to create stuff with people who aren’t models,” Ms Beks said.
