Archive for the 'Published' Category

Take a minute to click for us

Neil January 14th, 2008

We would sincerely appreciate your help in both referring us to your friends who will appreciate our services, but also communicating with the myriad of clients you may not meet or know by reviewing our work online. We must cast a broad net to reach each year’s new clients because we don’t serve the same (wedding) client twice. So while we know many of you have made financial sacrifices to hire us, your minute or two effort here will save our future clients the additional costs of more advertising.

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My site was nominated for Best Photography Blog!
Review our services on external sites and please click each of these links:

  1. Review Make Love Real at WeddingWire.
  2. Review Our Services on Amazon.com - if you have ordered from them before login to review.
  3. Digg us by clicking this link and following through Digg! this blog
  4. Add our site to your Favorites as a Technorati user.
  5. Top 100 BlogsTop100 Bloggers - Top Blog Directory - Blog Top list
  6. Cool Photoblogs rank’s MakeLoveReal.net
  7. We Rank with North Carolina Top Wedding Sites™

Social Network with Neil:

  1. Friend Neil on Facebook: (by far the most useful and used) if you’re not already our client, send me a note to let me know why you’re friending me.
  2. Neil’s Myspace Page: (not that I keep up with it)
  3. Linked in: professional networking
  4. Twitter: neilcowley
  5. Neil’s Flickr account where many of the images here are hosted, and much of the teaching/instructional images are found for:
  6. www.MakeLightReal.com - Neil’s creative journal if you’re interested in learning about the creative process or technical photo stuff.

You can find us listed online in these wonderful wedding directories:

Neil’s photo wins second place

Neil November 7th, 2007

Neil’s portrait below win’s second place in the Sigma “Summer Dreams” photo contest.

summer dreams photos contest winner

This image was shot with one of my favorite lenses the Sigma 24 1.8EX

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A note from the photo editor at Sposa

Neil April 27th, 2007

Hello Neil,

Wedding days are so special and so fleeting. Thank goodness we have talented photographers of your caliber to record it all for posterity.
We are proud to feature your images in SPOSA magazine.
Keep them coming!

Gulshan Sippy
Editor & Art Director
Sposa Magazine &
Groom Inc. Magazine

wedding magazine published photographer

A note from Sposa

Thanks for the kind words Gulshan, and keep running that sharp mag!

Bre & Ed earn a 9th place award from the AGWPJA

Neil December 6th, 2006

Take a look at the Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association to see photoshop manipulated images from the most recent contest.

Bre and Ed shared a kiss to help put this shot together:

And the judges awarded us a 9th place in the Engagement Portrait Category. Sorry I didn’t do better guys, you’re always first place with me! What do you think of the shot? They were a little disgusted by the pumpkin guts

I guess this is as good a time as any to introduce my thought process and Photoshop technique for all the photographers, and amaters reading.

wedding photojournalist signature

Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) 2004 year end results

Neil March 16th, 2005

I returned from two weeks in Thailand and China to good news from the WPJA - a top 5 ranking in the nation.Here are some of the contest winning images:

©Neil Cowley.com

I shot this in a fairly normal, somewhat drab reception hall and it had so much energy and style that it blew me away. The couple was the greatest element but what set it apart for me was the light - so I’ve been on a quest to repeat that success ever since.

This set of images is from the most satisfying contest result I’ve had - it was a category called 5 from 1 - and to me it meant more because it was validation of what I work so hard for, to connect my images to my clients by illustrating their story.

 The above 5 photographs were awarded First Place in the category “5 From One” from the WPJA.  Winning this award is the most satisfying contest result for me as it shows that I am accomplishing something in the sphere that I claim to be working - story telling imagery.  It is not enough to just make one good image from a wedding day, but the images as a series must speak more between the shots in as much as within the photos.