Every year the Montana Professional Photographers Association (MT PPA) has an annual convention. This is a great time for photographers to learn and socialize with their peers and to see great art from talented photographers around the state and some from Wyoming too. Last year was my first convention and it was overwhelming…like trying to get a drink from a fire hydrant! My mentor, Victoria Wojciechowski (Wojo to her friends) from Creative Visons Photography encouraged me to sit and watch my first year. Which was great advice as I had no clue what to expect. What I didn’t expect was the warmth and outpouring of friendship from people I hardly knew or didn’t know at all. When Vic asked me what I thought of the convention on our long drive home, I told her it was like a new ‘family’, get encouragement and learn.
That was last year. This year the convention was held in Helena and the time for sitting and watching was over. Last year I watched the print competition with interest and knew I wanted to compete, to find out how my images would stand among the best images of very talented photographers from our state. I entered five images in the competition. Two were wedding images, and three were classified as ‘uncategorized or illustrative’. Here are the images:
“Almost Ready”
“Sacred Gold”
“Hotshot”
“Defiance”
“Glowing With The Grain”
I can tell you that sitting in the viewing room watching the judges score the images is nervewracking! All but one of my images scored above eighty, which is quite unusual for a first time entrant. I feel it was a miracle as there were some awesome photos submitted by very talented people. Hanging four images, I was told by two judges, is not something done easily and I felt good just to have them in the ‘deserving of merit’ category and one, “Defiance” was in the ‘excellent’ category with an 84!
The night of the banquet and awards was where the ‘miracle’ happened. My image “Sacred Gold” was the first place winner in Wedding Portraits category. “Defiance” took second place in the Illustrative category and was awarded a Judges Choice award. The point total of all my prints enabled me to be selected as the ‘Best First Time Entrant’ and I was ranked #2 in the Top Ten Photographers in the state! To say this was a heady experience is not accurate enough…it was so emotional that I couldn’t speak and my face was streaked with tears! My friends, Victoria, Glen, Bill and many others were around me giving me support and cheering loudly at the mention of my name for the awards…almost embarassing…almost.
Two of the images were awarded Kodak Gallery Awards…a national award given for photographic excellence. Only 200 are given out each year and I had won TWO of them! Whoohoo!
What does this all mean? I’m so humbled that I have finally been validated by my peers and hope that these awards will instill a greater level of confidence in my clients with regard to my ability to produce great images and art. I’m glad I took the chance to compete and I’ve learned that no one does it by themselves. I was surrounded by great people willing to give of their time and their talents to help me attain this. And I was Blessed…by the Creator of all things good and he allowed me to show others what goodness and beauty I see in His creation…a miracle.
Kodak Gallery Awards
Awesome,
I remember the first time I entered in the ArizonaPPA (state convention) Thankfully I entered a local print comp and watched judging a few times.
I did good as well but it was only because I had watched other’s be critiqued. Good stuff.
PS: I grew up in E. MT.