Alhamdulillah, Wow! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read an email from IPA today. It was one of those emails that had ‘Admin’ as the title. To be honest with you, I really suspected it to be a SPAM. But for whatever reason I decided to not let the email go by just like that. So this is what the email read :

Dear Contestant,

Congratulations! Your work has been recognized as an Honorable Mention recipient in the 2010 International Photography Awards competition. With approximately 15,000 submissions from 103 countries across the globe, it was no easy feat for our jurors to award this year’s submissions. By the close of this week, you can log into your photoawards.com account and go to your winner’s services link on your member homepage. There you will find a downloadable certificate of recognition, a sample Press Release, as well as a seal that you can post on your website, blog or other webpages. This will be available for you by Friday, August 27. Please visit http://www.photoawards.com/en/Pages/Gallery/Gallery.php to view all Finalists, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners and fellow Honorable Mention recipients!

Thank you for setting the standard for excellence in Photography by participating in IPA. Congratulations once more and wishing you continued success in your photographic endeavors.

Regards,

Sarah Cho
Competition Director
International Photography Awards

Anyway here is the submission pic which I grabbed off the screen:

It was really sweet to find out also that I only sent this one entry in the competition and it receives Second spot in Honorable Mentions

Anyway below is the pic in greater detail:

A few weeks back I had the privilege to shoot Sheikh & Julaina’s wedding reception in The Westin. It was definitely a daunting task for me as I didn’t get to see the couple before the ‘do as they are very busy people, because Sheikh is a news presenter and Julaina is an air stewardess. So basically the night of the reception was literally the first night we got to meet. Sheikh to my great surprise was so fun to be around with because he was so bubbly and funny, definitely a far cry from the person you watch on the telly, presenting news while having dinner with the family. Anyway here’s just a few pictures I’ve decided to include in this post. Hope you enjoy them!

Sheikh writes a few more notes for his thank you speech

A good friend of ours Najwa (in my humble opinion, Malaysia’s best vocalist) sings a few lovely numbers that night and Chandra from Indonesia

Hi guys! It’s been a while since I have blogged anything at all. I assure you it is with a good reason indeed, it’s WORK! I’m literally swamped with loads of edits which need to be finished! Thankfully next month we will be going through the fasting month of Ramadhan insyaAllah, so hopefully that would give me ample time to finish up the heaps of edits and album layouts I have to complete.

Anyway, I’ve decided to post some more stuff from my New York City ‘voyage’ so to speak. I must say what really stuck on my mind while I was in the Big Apple was definitely  the feeling of literally being surrounded by buildings all day long. It’s kinda weird at times. New York City is as the song goes , ‘A concrete jungle where dreams are made of”. One thing I realized too, while I was in New York, was how it has truly become a city of many cultures. It’s definitely much more cosmopolitan then the city I visited back in the 80’s. It’s more dynamic and less intimidating compared to what it was back then. Anyway I hope you enjoy just some of the shots I’d like to share with all of you in this posting.

The city literally looks like a microchip with complex circuitry

This was the view that greeted us virtually every morning as we were staying a walking distance away from Central Park

While I was there there was this ‘Iron figure’ that was placed all around the city, even on top of many buildings! When it was first implemented some people thought it was really someone standing on the building ledge! Yikes!

I was told that this apartment development has something like hundreds of  blocks! Well I’m not sure precisely how many, but imagine having to meet a friend if you lost his address here!

The yellow cabs seem to be such a trademark of the city, apparently there’s something like 19,000 cabs just in NYC alone!

Art Deco period buildings seem to mushroom everywhere in this city.

It’s also a city full of contrasts. Just a street away there’s Trump Tower. Pictured here is this poor homeless man.

Horse ridding Patrols were ever present

Yes it almost feels as if you are stuck in an American TV drama

I met this Yugaslavian guy near The Flat Iron building. Thanks to his great PR skills he managed to sell me that camera he’s holding !

And here is the camera I bought in close up! hehe

A ‘King Kong’ point of view, searching for the next target. He he

Oh yeah who can ever forget the Bagel carts strewn all over the city!

I still cant believe how each building is built so close to one another!

Old and new elements seem to merge very well in this city that never sleeps

The first shop that me and my wife visited when we arrived in NYC was definitely the Apple Store on 5th Avenue

Hopefully we’ll insyaAllah see you again Big Apple !

Be a fan of Qippy.com Photography. Click Here!

Last weekend I was busy shooting a wedding at the Wilayah Mosque. It’s always nice to come back to this mosque time and time again as it allows me to explore the different possible ways I can shoot in this facade every time I’m here. Each time I come here I start asking myself, ‘how can I make this shoot different from the previous shoot?’. I do like the challenge to try and shoot differently every time I’m at the same venue. Nevertheless, I would have to admit there are those shots that have to be there, because it’s really the essence of the place and a disregard to it would be quite lame, ie having the mosque in the background kind of shot is a must here etc. Anyway here is the shoot from that day.

Hudaa & her Sister, Hiba

A moment of reflection before she goes to the mosque for the solemnization

Hiba was overcome by tears just as they arrived at the front entrance of the Mosque

The father to the bride in deep thought

The Groom and his father say a prayer

Mother to the bride in the background

Oh yeah btw, Izwan enjoy your Ipad !

Be a fan to Qippy.com Photography. Please click below: