This striking image of model Keely throwing her hair back has been selected for a second industry award: this year’s annual PDN Photo awards.

In March, I blogged about the fact that this image was one of only 185 photographs chosen by the American Photography 29 awards panel in this year’s AI-AP photography awards – it is now in the AI-AP archive, a juried website collection (which you can view at American Photography 29).

I was recently told that the same image was selected as a winning photograph in another of the industry’s most prestigious competitions: the PDN Photo Annual 2013.

By being chosen for both the PDN Photo awards and American Photography 29 in the same year, this image has won two of the most coveted awards in the international photography scene. I’m delighted and would like to thank the judging panel and jury at both awards bodies and competitions.

See the galleries of winners for the 2013 PDN Photo awards.

Of course, the winning image wasn’t a solo project! I’d like to extend special thanks to everyone involved in the shoot:

Model: Keely at Nevs
Art Director: Martin Yates
Hair and Makeup: Nadira Persaud
Assistants: Dan and Rob
Retouch: Sinisa

Finally, I’m now tweeting so please do follow me for news and awards, updates on my travels and personal projects and my general thoughts about the latest in the photography industry: Karan Kapoor photographer Twitter.

Karan Kapoor image is PDN photo award winner 2013 award is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here Karan Kapoor photographer website and you can follow him on Twitter here Karan Kapoor photographer Twitter.

Here are some images from my most recent personal project: an “active lifestyle” shoot I completed in March 2013.

I worked on this shoot with Art Director Martin Yates. Ever since the beauty shoot we collaborated on in 2012, we’ve been keen to work on a completely different project: one that focused on energy, colour and movement. We decided on an athletic theme and set about looking for sports people, athletes, gymnasts and dancers to shoot. It took a while to find the right models and location but it was worth it, as I hope you’ll agree!

It was great to work with such strong, athletic, dynamic bodies and was a pleasure to capture them in motion as you can see from these shots.

As always, planning, patience and careful casting (as well as having the best crew ever!) are all key to a stress-free shoot day and a successful set of images.

More images from the Active Lifestyle shoot can be viewed at www.karankapoor.com

Photographer: Karan Kapoor
Art Director: Martin Yates
Stylist: Thea Lewis-Yates
Make-up and Hair: Hannah Paul
Models: Katie Byrne, Antione Marc, Haylene Ryan (all are represented by WA Athletic Model Agency)

“Active Lifestyle” photography project is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is www.karankapoor.com and you can follow him on Twitter here.

This image was one of just 185 photographs to make it through, chosen by the American Photography 29 awards panel from over 9,000 images submitted. The AI-AP photography archive is a juried website collection and you can view it here at American Photography 29

The jury included respected names from the commercial and editorial sides of the photography industry: Sam Barzilay of United Photo Industries, Antonio de Luca of Self Publish, Be Happy, MaryAnne Golon of The Washington Post, Whitney Johnson of The New Yorker, Casey Tierney, Real Simple and Jody Quon, New York.

I’ll be using The AI AP archive to build an online portfolio of all my American Photography award winning images so please keep an eye on the link as the collection develops.

One other thing: I’m now on Twitter, please follow me for Tweets about my work, awards, travels and personal projects as well as general thoughts about the photography industry: Karan Kapoor photographer Twitter.

Karan Kapoor photography chosen for American Photography 29 award is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here and you can follow him on Twitter here.

As well as doing a lot of creative, advertising and commercial work for agencies and clients, I’ve always maintained a level of personal work in my portfolio. I enjoy it, and I feel it allows me to explore themes and techniques in my own time.

Here are my top three examples of personal work from 2012.

Cousins
I’m particular fond of this image above, of a baby in his nappy looking at his cousin who is trying to balance a bubble on her head. This fun, vibrant image portrays everything that I love about photography: humour, spontaneity and the wonderful times when you manage to capture the seemingly-impossible “precise moment”.

Underwater
The two underwater shots above started off (… as many favourite moments of personal work do!) as nothing particularly special. I was testing out some new underwater photography gear and asked my daughter to act as my model. All of my kids love swimming, and the resulting images really show how my daughter flourished in the other-worldy underwater element.

For these, underwater shots I used a Canon 5d MK11, in a Aquatica housing with an Inon Z240 flash.

Whatever kit you use and whatever your subject, I hope you enjoy your personal photography projects as much as I do.

Karan Kapoor’s favourite personal work of 2012 is a post from Karan Kapoor’s blog. His main website is here.

As a leading commercial photographer, Karan has worked with client Royal Caribbean Cruise on a number of occasions. The most recent project he was involved in was for the Dreamworks Experience, a vibrant and colourful entertainment experience for customers on board the luxurious cruise liner Allure of the Seas.

“Shooting stills and video for the Dreamworks Experience was a busy job,” says Karan. “I got to work with a range of characters including Kung Fu Panda, Po, Shrek, Puss in Boots and all the characters from the Dreamworks animated film Madagascar.”

For the project, Karan was asked to shoot both still images and video. This is something he is seeing more and more of in the commercial and promotional side of the photographic industry, and believes is a set of key skills any successful commercial photographer needs to develop and maintain.

“The most challenging aspect of the Dreamworks Experience project was the elaborate parade,” explains Karan. “We had only one chance to shoot this, and had no option to stage it, pause it or retake any shots at all. The parade only lasted 20 minutes, and we couldn’t get in the way of any of the characters or floats, yet had to capture as much of the colour and movement as possible. We tackled this unique challenge by setting up five cameras to shoot stills and video from various angles.”

See what you think of the final version of the parade video here.

Credits:
Client: Royal Caribbean
Photographer: Karan Kapoor
Production: Jenn Kim/ Anderson Hopkins
Marketing Manager: Addy Lubin
Retouching Stills: Siniisa Savic
Video Edit: Mat Sunderland / Sunipa Pictures