DAVID ELLINGSEN PHOTOGRAPHY

I was asked to judge this year’s Rodeo 3 competition of student photography from across Canada…lots of great work to sort through. The top 50 images, both photography and illustration, are now on display on the CAPIC website.  An article and images from the gala are also displayed on grafika website. Winners and judges biographies were featured in the April edition of the CAPIC Newsletter, with more to come next month.

We had a very successful event this past week with the 2nd Annual CAPIC Vancouver Portfolio Speed Reviews. I won’t go into great detail myself as I’ll re-post the official wrap up below, but this has to be the second best possible reason to join CAPIC (the first is getting those Canadian copyright laws changed!).

Without doubt, one of the most successful and rewarding events that CAPIC Vancouver has put together! There was a fantastic turnout of reviewers representing the best design houses and advertising agencies in the city including Cossette, Karacters, Emdoublyou Design, and Hangar 18. This was matched by a real cross-section of photographers showing their best work. According to the reviewers, there were some stunning world class quality portfolios being shown.
Reviewers repeatedly noted that artists that they had seen last year had taken and acted on their advice to greatly improve the overall impact and quality of their books. This was a clear indication to them of the value of the event. The designers all felt that this was time well spent. Meeting new talent, reacquainting themselves with others and being part of the community was worth every minute.
Each of the artists felt the quality of the reviews. Although five minutes often felt like only two, it created a focused and intense session which was truly like speed dating ( for those who have done that) after which they hoped that could lead to follow-up meetings and potential work.
There is no other comparable business environment that brings so many artists and buyers together to meet.
The event committee, volunteers and board members all worked hard to organize this event that saw virtually every participant in the reviews having their portfolio seen and commented on by every one of the 12 reviewers. To everyone’s real appreciation, that exceeded all expectations. A giant thank you to all of the reviewers for staying on to finish!

Comments and quotes from the evening:

It really was a fabulous evening. It was exhausting, but extremely
rewarding. The reviews are a great opportunity for us to offer some
guidance on how to get the most impact from a well designed portfolio
presentation.
Vida Jurcic – Hangar 18

It was a pleasure. Overall I found the night very organized and quality
of work shown to be quite high. A shame not one illustrators showed up.
Local reps should be slapped for not encouraging their clients to attend.
Thank you again for inviting us to participate,
Mark Busse – Industrial Brand Creative

Thanks for having me last night, it was my pleasure.
Calvin Ho  Vancouver  MacLaren McCann

“Good to see some new younger talent, not sure how you attract this and
even getting some of the more established shooters to attend.”
James Bateman – Karacters Design Group

“Thanks for the opportunity to present my work to a variety of art directors
in an atmosphere that is both relaxed and analytical. It has been invaluable
to my development as a photographer.”
Leanna Rathkelly – Whistler

“If you need a reason to join CAPIC, it is the Portfolio Speed Review. A must
attend event for both professionals and amateurs.”
Pooya Nabei -  Pooya Nabei Photography

CAPIC Vancouver is again hosting Portfolio Speed Reviews with art directors + graphic designers.
On the evening of May 25th get your book in front of a great list of art buyers!

Should be a great event.

Congratulations to the winners.

The results for Rodeo 2, CAPIC’s latest photography competition, have been announced. I was honoured to be one of ten judges from across Canada to adjudicate this contest. The whole process was executed on-line, a wonderfully efficient process for judges across the country, with almost 100 photographs to examine and rank. Nice to see such participation. Based on a scale of 1 through 5 we worked through them in the first round…with a tie-breaking vote for 2nd and 3rd place a week later (a tight race between 5 talented photographers!).

Alongside heavy hitters Diane Arbus and David LaChapelle (and that is just the “D” section), my work has recently been added to Poland’s gorgeous ModernPhoto website. An inspirational site of international photographers…worth a look for anyone interested in photography.

Here’s a bit of information from their website (translated from Polish):
“MODERNPHOTO, most of all, is a subjective collection of the best photo galleries available on the net. On our site we place only carefully selected photography galleries and artists. MODERNPHOTO is for those who are searching for professional photographers, want to check how professional photographs are taken or are just looking for inspiration. Our main purpose is to promote good photography and present interesting artists and their work. The MODERNPHOTO.PL website shows what modern photography is and can be.”