Swedish Champion in Wedding Photography & Photo of the Year Award
John Hellström won the Swedish Championship and the Photograph of the Year award at SM i Fotografi
With a drone image in the summer sunset, John Hellström won gold and became the Swedish Champion in Wedding Photography 2020. He also became the winners of the winners when the gold medal pictures of the different classes were compared and then received the Photograph of the Year award.
In the picture, the bride and groom met the warm sun as they walk around the blue pool to their guests. They walked right in the opening between the shadows from the fence above them. The couples’ shadows point obliquely downwards towards the pool railing, which in turn gives the wooden floors a shadow heart. John gave the picture the title "Pool of Love", which may also be reminiscent of warming each other's hearts in these difficult times.
“I asked the wedding couple if we could take a few minutes for drone photos of them before the wedding dinner. They replied that if I thought it could give different pictures, they would set aside a few minutes for it" says John.
Swedish Championship in Photography - SM i Fotografi - Svenska Mästerskapen
Photographer and printmaker John Hellström now defended his medal places in weddings from 2017 (Gold), 2018 (Silver), 2019 (Silver), with Gold 2020. He is the only wedding photographer in Sweden who has managed to defend his medal place, now for the fourth year in a row. This was the first Swedish Championship where all the Swedish Championship Gold pictures in the different classes competed for the winner’s title, the title Photography of the Year, which the picture Pool of Love won. It received one of the competition's highest marks of all time, with 97 out of 100 points on average.
In the digital qualifying round, John had four photos for the final, as the competition rules had set four as the maximum limit for an individual photographer to qualify for the final in each class. The other three pictures were placed in 4th, 5th, and 14th place (a photographer may only come in medal place with one of his pictures in the same class).
John says “My photographs are from real weddings, with real couples, real feelings, and time pressure. I train like an elite athlete to improve myself to meet the couples better and handle photography in various difficult and challenging conditions. Before the Swedish Championships this year, I have spent hundreds of hours on photography, editing, and printing, in search of better pictures. I am overjoyed that it has given such results! ”
John Hellström With Photography Awards
Other Swedish Championship-winning photographers who printed at Hellström Studio
As a printmaker, it is very fun to support talented photographer colleagues. At Hellström Studio, John also printed photographs for other professionals who won medals in the Swedish Championships. Therese Asplund won Gold in the Children category, as well as two silver and three bronze. Jenny Ivarsson won Silver in the Baby category. Congratulations! See all award-winning photos at the Swedish Championships in Photography.
John Hellstrom Swedish Championship Certificate
Links about the Swedish Championship in Photography
The photo magazine Fotosidan writes about John Hellstrom’s championship gold
The photo magazine Kamera & Bild writes about Photograph of the Year that was printed by John at Hellstrom Studio
Surf to SM i Fotografi and read more about the competition
About competition print for the Swedish Championship final.
How photographers and print makers control their colour workflow (create ICC profiles for your printer and monitor)
Contact portrait and wedding photographer John Hellstrom via email: john(at)hellstrom.com or mobile phone: 0046-(0)733-668600. Surf in to www.hellstromstudio.com/en if you have photographs you would like to print for wall-art. Follow on Facebook at johnhellstromphoto and Instagram at #johnhellstromphoto for more photographs.
