Professional Photographers of America
Southwest District – Artist Category

The other day I shared the Photographic Open results for the PPA Southwest District Photographic Competition. Today I share my results from the Artist Competition. All four images were judged to be of Merit category quality. They all scored in the low 80’s to earn a District Seal.. Because they did not score above an 85, they will not have a chance to be judged for the PPA Loan Collection. Very proud of these results. With all four being judged a Merit when they are entered into the International Photographic Competition (IPC) I will earn a Bronze medal in the August judging and receive it at the convention next year in Atlanta.

image1This image is titled Grand Opening. I’ve been experimenting with some new techniques with art brushes in some of my art.

The judging in the Artist Category is, of course, on the final image but also the transformation from the original to the final is examined for the amount of change and how well those changes to the image were accomplished. That is why there is a reference image. This allows the judges to see the starting point of the project.

humminbird artHummingbird Study is the transformation of a slightly underexposed image of the bird that was extracted from the scene and worked into an artistic background

Dragonfly imageA dragonfly pausing in the morning light becomes transformed with some Layers of texture and various color and lighting treatments.

rose art imageThis rose has moved from a photo to a classical feel of a painting. In all cases, there are many renditions of an image as it goes through the transformation process.

I participate to keep myself motivated to learn new techniques and ways of processing images so I can stretch my artistic goals. I am so very fortunate to be working in a medium that has the untold potential for transforming images. If I ever felt that I had mastered the medium entirely, it would be time to move on to the next adventure.

Still way too much to learn and share!

Yours in Creative Photography,    Bob