For those of you don’t know, the Ice Society is a subscription-based photography educational website dedicated to empowering fellow professionals and enthusiasts to take their photography and business to new heights. A new chapter is added every month with all new material. You can access all past, present and future chapters for twelve full months for the all new price of $299 per year. Save $65. We are happy to announce that we now offer a $30 monthly payment option for a commitment for 12 months. As of January 2013 there are 61 chapters.

To celebrate the 5 year birthday of the Ice Society, I am pleased to offer everyone a special membership fee of $199 (a $100 savings!). Simply use this promo code: icesale . Join now! But this special will only be available until the end of January. Your membership will not only include all 61 chapters that are currently in the library, but the next 12 chapters that we release.

If you would like to explore the Ice Society before signing up for a full membership, you can now enjoy chapter 61 for FREE! Once you’ve had a taste of what the Ice Society offers, become a full member and enjoy all of the benefits of a full membership.

But I have to say that I am so proud to be associated with WPPI. Their team is slick, professional and personable as well. I want to make sure that I give a huge thank you to Arlene Evans, George Varanakis and their wonderful team for yet another memorable show. For me, WPPI has always been about growth, education and family. A week at the convention really reinvigorates you creatively, sparks that passion for what you love to do and gives you strength for the rest of the year.

Melissa tirelessly spent months tackling logistics as we created our largest exhibit at the trade show as we officially launched the Ice Light this week. The Ice Light is a brand new continuous LED light source I invented and that Westcott created. Our booth featured three gorgeous models: Meleane and Anita were illuminating themselves as they walked around the convention and the stunning Lisa modeled at the booth as she posed and illuminated herself while photographers were able to practice shooting. We also had our largest team ever this year which included some of our closest friends: my former assistant, Sally Sargood; Gail and Nicole who are long time friends and veterans at our booth; a former workshop student, Michelle Campbell; Marco and Liz from Michigan who modeled for us in Paris; Mark and Tiffany who modeled for us and are our close friends in LA; and Tabitha and Miguel who are the sexiest Texans you will ever meet. Thank you guys! Melissa and I couldn’t have done it without you!

Each year, I use WPPI’s print and album competition to reinvent myself. It puts a deadline on my creativity as I challenge myself to produce unique albums and enter fresh prints each year. For this convention, I entered a total of five albums and one of them was easily the most ambitious and difficult album design in my career. I photographed about 20 weddings last year and I knew that I needed a wedding with that “X factor” to have a chance at taking the top honours in the Wedding Album of the Year competition. There was one wedding in particular that I felt had that perfect blend of story, family, emotion, ritual, glamour and the wow factor. The album design itself had to be different enough to make it a contender, though. I thought I would take a risk and create a polaroid collage creating a sense of movement in each spread. It makes a 2D image almost appear 3D. It was like creating a puzzle from the inside out with no knowledge of the final image. When I began creating it, I was in a creative zone like never before. Each image had to be placed individually and carefully. It took me six long days with very few interruptions to produce this album. Since all the images had to be placed into position one by one, a reasonable knowledge of Photoshop would be required. The problem is, I don’t know how to use Photoshop. So I called my good friend Andrew from Fundy Software. He created the base templates for the book and after a short tutorial, his software made it easy to bring my vision to life. It wouldn’t have been possible without Fundy software. Thank you Andrew!!! A huge thank you to Jessica Schembri as well who worked the images for me. (She offers tutorials on her retouching web site. Check it out!)

My inspiration for this design came from the master at polaroid collages, David Hockney, and also the double reflection you would see in a beveled mirror. This album design is truly one of my favourites and it is the most difficult design I have ever attempted.

This is the tenth year in a row that I have submitted an album in the Single Photographer category for Wedding Album of the Year, and I am excited to announce that the following album of Stella and Minh’s wedding (photographed in May 2011) won 1st place! This win marks the 8th time I have won the award in 10 years! I am so proud that I have won 15 out of the possible 30 top honours in the past 10 years. (Counting 1st, 2nd and 3rd places).

Win or lose, entering prints or albums into competition keeps you fresh, sharp and challenges you and others around you to always get better and improve their craft. I have always said that you don’t have to be the best. You just have to be better than last week.

I will be posting more of my WPPI entries here on my blog very soon, including an entire wedding album with images that were taken on an iPhone and presented without Photoshop. That album scored an 85 and I’m so proud of it. But don’t worry…that wedding was mainly shot with a Nikon D3S.

In the meantime, though, enjoy the winning entry in this year’s WPPI’s Wedding Album of the Year competition. By the way, this entire wedding is now being featured on my subscription based educational web site, the Ice Society If you are not a member, you can browse chapter 49 for free or if you’d like access to all of the chapters, you can join now for $100 off. Just use the promo code: icesale Enjoy!

Here are a few samples of the album. To see the entire album see the gallery below…

Melissa and I would like to offer a huge thanks to our developers, Patrick, Jon and their team, for their brilliant skills and professional services to make the Ice Society the fast, slick and user friendly website that it is now. You far exceeded our expectations and we are in awe of what you do! The reinvention of the Ice Society would not have been possible without Sally Sargood, my former assistant who still works for me from time to time and was there from the inception of the Ice Society four years ago. Thank you, Sally! Another special thanks to my video editor, Victor Kalichnikov, for your patience and mad editing skills. Victor is the man that makes the videos possible on the Ice Society. And to Matthew Scott who was our editor for the videos in the early chapters of the Ice Society. Last but not least, thank you to my gorgeous wife, Melissa, for being an amazing partner in life and in business. Only you and I know the countless hours and sacrifices that we have made to make the site what it is.

To celebrate the launch of the all new Ice Society, I am pleased to you offer everyone a special membership fee of $265 (a $100 savings!). Simply use this promo code: icesale . Join now! But this special will only be available until the 29th of February. Your membership will not only include all 50 chapters that are currently in the library, but the next 12 chapters that we release.

If you would like to explore the Ice Society before signing up for a full membership, you can now enjoy chapter 49 for FREE! Once you’ve had a taste of what the Ice Society offer, become a full member and enjoy all of the benefits of a full membership.

Enjoy the following brand new promo video of Chapter 38-49!