TrashEd: Free Trash-the-Dress Session Contest

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Calling for all adventurous minds!

This time has come again! After the smashing success of the free engagement session contest a year ago, I am über excited to announce Zorz Studios’ next contest, TrashEd, in which we give away complimentary trash-the-dress sessions, photo books, and even free wedding coverage to three lucky winners!

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What?

Trash-the-Dress (TTD) session in my studio’s books is referred to as a high-impact, visually explosive, outrageous, even absurd photography session usually with a bride but sometimes with both B&G, conducted after the wedding with an emphasis on totaling the dress. This is a tribute to your dress, this IS the way to remember it, not just by you, your skeptical teenage daughter, and your pet moths but by all of your envious girlfriends, the online community, and beyond. This is the only opportunity for the creative, intrepid, salient, and adventurous souls to fulfill their daring dreams of being referred to as one-of-a-kind bride.

Granted, Zorz Studios’ bride looks stunning on her wedding day but on that day, she is likely to be found in an all-well expected place — a familiar cityscape, park, or venue — doing pretty much what she is expected to do — posing graciously in a snow-white dress, or softly kissing, or gently looking into her puppy’s… eh, hubby’s eyes. Fire it up! Be the Queen of the Dumsterland, the Dark Spirit of the Neverwoods, the Mesmerizing Siren of the Caribbean, the Fire Angel, the Mad Artist, the Princess of the Nukes… Need I say more?

You may be asking, what will this guy attempt to do? (It’s ok, not everyone knows me.) Place me in a puddle?  Or throw me on a sooted fireplace wall? Well, it is an option for an ordinary TTD session but not for me! My studio pushes the limits. Consider last year’s free engagement contest. The winners were not keen on walking on an alley holding their hands… They wanted something more, and we delivered way more! Check some of their images below, along with other elaborate e-sessions that we did last year… body painting, cinematic storybook, underwater, fashionably risque, Renaissance, Gothic, and many more.

I want to see those dresses stuck in bushes of wild roses, sunk in a desert (Burning Man… ring-ring), greased in manholes, painted over, set on fire, torn into pieces (and here’s your chance to get a free boudoir session with a high-fashion twist, too!)… I dare you to surprise me.

The contest’s hot prizes are:

• 3rd place – complimentary TTD session
• 2nd place – complimentary TTD session and 20-page haute book of session’s images
• 1st place – complimentary TTD session and free wedding photography service

Notes: Third-party fees associated with TTD session are optional but are likely to occur, being solely clients’ responsibility. Examples are permits, rentals, and transportation. Free photography service on the wedding day covers time of the primary shooter, a $4,000 value. Additional post-wedding services and products are optional. The TTD session must be shot within one year after the results are announced, or within six months after the wedding, whichever date is later.

Who?
Invited are all engaged and married couples! Yes, married, too! I know some of my past brides were that type of soul. 🙂 I can understand the reservations of soon-to-get-married and of freshly baked but you, the married for a while, may have started to wonder if there is light at the end of your dress’ closet.  The married ones will not get a wedding coverage as a prize but hey, the most exciting part is still theirs to experience! And if you are not engaged nor married, think of your friends and kick them over here! As a destination wedding photographer, I welcome people not only in the NYC metro area, but from across and beyond the country as long as they pick the bill for travel and accommodation.  Entrants must be willing to appear in my blog with their stories. To claim the 1st place, I must be available on their wedding date. Booked clients eligible for TTD sessions only. And of course, pre-wedding entrants will be given a chance to wear the dress on their big day before we trash it.

How?
Enter by submitting your wild vision of the TTD session, along with a photo of you and few more details. The bolder and the more challenging your vision is to execute (which I LOVE and hope for!), the higher the chance of having it done, for free!

Keep one point in mind — this is not a raffle but a contest. In return for a valuable service and skills, you have to bring an intriguing idea to the table. I can certainly come up with my own for you but then I charge you! 🙂 If you thought of something new since your submission, feel free to re-enter.

The link to the entry form is posted below. Four judges, including truly yours, will pick the three finalists. They will be announced in Zorz Studios’ blog and all visitors will be able to cast their vote for who they believe is the craziest and coolest. Entrants will be encouraged to invite their families and friends to vote, of course!

When?
Entries accepted through December 31st.
Finalists announced on January 9th.
Voting ends on January 31st.
Results posted on February 3st.

Don’t let anyone miss out! Forward this to all your friends and spread the word! Think of all your crazy neighbors, friends, family members, and of course YOURSELF. We’re going to have a blast with this!

Submission Ended

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11/17/2009 UPDATE: And we are up to a great start! Just on its second day of the announcement, the contest page drew attention of hundreds of visitors and — we have the first brave entrant! Kudos to Bessie Lee from New York, NY for jumping on the sinking ship with a fun and sexy idea! Judging by her e-session images that she shared with us, I can tell that this young lady is into making an impression. Edgy, hip, sensual, and fashionable – just the right ingredients for the table! Anyone into contributing and sharing the meal?

12/29/09 UPDATE: Only 3 days left to enter Zorz Studios’ contest and win a wedding photography service by truly yours! I’ve seen some cool entries already and can hardly wait to bring them to light. Yet, I have a feeling I haven’t seen it all… I dare you to step out, Bravehearts and Queens of Swords!

01/05/10 UPDATE: The submission has ended so on to the next step! Judges, please click below to log in using a password sent to you via e-mail. We have until 01/09/10 to select the three finalists who will be later positioned by the popular vote of site visitors.

Judges Login

01/09/10 UPDATE: The finalists have been determined and the voting is now open! Click below to see the finalists and vote hard and dirty!!! I invite and welcome all visitors and friends of the finalists! Help them make one step further and win free wedding photography service! Spread the word and unite!

Vote for Finalists!

01/14/10 UPDATE: In less than one week, the contest has already drawn close to 500 votes among the finalists! The turnout is quickly bypassing the one of last year’s engagement session contest. What an encouragement to the TTD concept! The amazing neck-to-neck competition is heating up…

01/22/10 UPDATE: Who will it be? Just about a week before the voting ends, we have a near tie between 1st and 2nd places! What a tension… (And I am not telling who they are.)

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02/03/10 UPDATE: And we have the winners!!! Close to a thousand of of visitors cast their vote for their favorite finalists, and they are…

First place – Bessie
Prize: complimentary TTD session and free wedding photography service.

“Title: Sweet to Eat Concept: The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’ We don’t want to just trash the dress- we want to tell a story. Scene 1- FOOD FIGHT Shots: Great action shots and still poses of the bride and groom eating dessert very sexually Vibe: Fun, sweet, sexy and dirty Description: It takes place during the wedding reception- the hour where we decide to hit the perfectly laid out dessert table. The backdrop and dessert table is white for a very clean look but everything on the dessert table is bright, vivid, mountainous, larger than life and colorful. Every inch of the table is completely filled with: 5 tiered wedding cakes Chocolate sauce Whipped cream Gallons of milk Beautiful dessert trays with assorted sweets Colorful ice cream All types of sticky candies Powdered and colored sugar Sweet, colorful liquor bottles (Godiva liquor, champagne bottles, and flavored vodkas) Painted martini glasses FOOD FIGHT!!! Scene 2- THE AFTERMATH Shots: Great for facial expressions and for a sexy editorial Vibe: Hung over, grungy, completely covered in sweets Description: The reception hall is empty and the bride and groom are completely hung over and stuffed from the dessert. Either on the floor, with our clothes ripped off, half on and off- we’re discombobulated with no recollection of what just happened; or in the bathroom stalls with toilet paper all over the place; or in the reception hall’s kitchen, with dirty dishes piled up in a wet, soapy sink. It’s really sexy and dirty! I’m so excited just thinking about it and I know you can make our vision happen!!! “

Second place: Eric and Nancy
Prize: complimentary TTD ession and 20-page album of session’s images.

“Our vision is to trash the dress using graffiti art. A close friend of Nancy’s is a very talented graffiti artist. We would like the session to start off with the artist creating an artistic version of a wedding ceremony. He can “tag” an alter, the church or hall scenery and create a painted version of a bride and groom on a backdrop scene made of canvas or perhaps plywood… something BIG. The scene will be rich with color…flowers, candles, stone and brick, with a fake bride and groom in the foreground. We can take some pictures of the bride and groom (us) pretending to “create” this scene all around them using the spray paint…after all, it is our love that created this day, so we can be shown physically creating the space (guided of course by the graffiti artist). Next, we can introduce the real bride and groom into the picture, replacing the painted figures in the foreground. The graffiti artist can paint us as if we were part of the picture all along. They will both be dressed in their wedding ensembles. We will then have the artist begin painting the actual dress, making the bride part of the graffiti picture, and telling a story with pictures on the dress.. perhaps he can paint a heart to symbolize how we first fell in love, some other interesting and relevant symbols, stories and pictures directly on the dress. At the different stages in the process, we can show the groom (me) painting these pictures on my wife. In the end, we will have a beautifully painted gown that will symbolize the love and art associated with taking a vow to spend our lives together.”

Third place: Shirley
Prize: complimentary TTD session.

“Inspired by “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” and the fact that my fiance is a martial artist, I would love to stage a fight scene where I fight off a ninja using ninja stars, swords and daggers (all of which we have access to since my soon-to-be brother in law owns a Tae Kwon Do gym in the Bronx). I envision some hot fighting scenes where my dress gets shredded little by little. We might even be able to do shots of me hanging from my dress which is pinned to the wall with daggers and stars. Not sure I can pull off acrobatics in my dress, but perhaps we can stage some shots of me doing back flips and running up a wall. In the end, when my dress is in shreds, I will unmask the ninja, realize its Willie, and we can close of the story line with some romantic (slash passionate) shots. It might be awesome if we can have the backdrop of an alley way in Chinatown (or something similar) which would have fire escapes and stuff for me to hang from. The black ninja against the white bride would be very Ying & Yang. “

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Congratulations to all the winners!!! Man, what concepts! We are up for another round of supercharged mind-blowing photographic adventures!

I am also happy to say that although Leah, the fourth finalists, did not win, I am offering her a 50% discount on their TTD session.  All other contest entrants are eligible for 30% discount, as our way of showing appreciation for their time and sharing their ideas. Please contact the studio for arrangements.

My special thanks go to the other three photographers who contributed their time to judge earlier in the pre-voting stage: Olga Mironova, Maya Beynishes, and JP Sevillano.

Well, the fun has just started, so bookmark this page and check back in a few months to see how we are doing! Thank you everyone for your support, interest, and participation!