14/08/2026
I just got back from a long but completely amazing week in Christchurch for the NZ Iris Awards and NZIPP Photoshow Conference, and while the days were long, getting to sit through three days of live judging was such an incredible experience! I was so nervous waiting for the animal category to come up and hearing my images judged live, but I really couldn't have asked for better results!
It made for an extra overwhelming week because on the exact same day as the live Animal judging in Christchurch, I found out my results for the International Pet Photography Awards, and then my recent monthly results from the Guild of Photographers came through as well!
𝗡𝗭 𝗜𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀
• Seven Silver awards, one Silver with Distinction, and one Gold coming in at 92 points out of 100, which was the only Gold awarded across the entire Animal digital entries!
• Named one of the finalists for NZ Animal Professional Photographer of the Year as one of the top three in our homegrown competition, which feels so sweet because I usually focus on international awards!
𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗲𝘁 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀
• All ten submitted images scored, taking home two Bronzes, two Bronzes with Distinction, two Silvers, one Silver with Distinction, and a Gold!
• Out of over 4,200 entries worldwide and only 28 Golds given across the whole competition, two of my images placed in the Top 100 alongside such mind blowing photographers!
𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
• Two Bronzes and two Silvers, which means an awful lot to me because Silvers are notoriously hard to achieve in the Guild, and one of those silver awards was for a portrait of my boy Fin!
Behind the scenes, so much love and effort goes into preparing these entries, and I spend countless hours fine tuning every single detail on each image because I am constantly competing with myself to try and outdo what I created the year before. Because it takes so much time to get a single image competition worthy, it just isn't feasible to enter all the wonderful client images I would love to, so I choose a small handful each year to do the annual rounds across different competitions before picking a fresh pot of images for the next year.
I am completely blown away by all of these results, and I am just so thankful to my amazing clients who trust me to photograph their gorgeous pups, as well as my boy Fin, who was meant to be officially retired from modelling duties by now but continues to be the bestest, most tolerant boy! A massive thank you to Lilly, Alfred, Cairo, Ry, Baxter, Norman, Blaze, Cookie, Elsie, Jiminy Cricket, and Heathrow for being such star, award winning models. 🏅