by successfulbob | fine art photography, photography, photography competition, photography education, success education
Thanks to New Mexico Professional Photographers Association (NMPPA) for hosting a convention of which to be proud. They did a great job. I was there to give a program on art and imaging competition and to help judge the annual print competition. There were a lot of great images.
If you are in the NM area and want to get in on some great learning you should join the organization. Organizations always go through ups and downs and it looks like they are on the ups with a solid board excited about getting quality photo education from photography speakers for their members.
Image made during the NMPPA convention during my ‘Photo-Synthesis’ Photoshop class.
Books, magazines, the web, DVD tutorials, Creative Live & PhotoVision are all great ways to gather photography education!
BUT, nothing beats in-person photo education and networking with fellow photographers and competing in the PPA system of Imaging Competition. A great place to start is with your state Professional Photographers Association whether you are in New Mexico, Arizona or any other state. Not sure where your closest PPA Affiliate is? Find out here.
Yours in Professional Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix Lounge, photography education, success education
In Albuquerque, New Mexico for the PPANM annual convention. Will be serving as a judge for print competition today (Sunday) starting at 1 PM. Then tomorrow I’ll be presenting my ‘Photo-Synthesis’ program with a side of print competition from the state through PPA District through PPA International. A bit about the why it’s good for your business and how to do your best in what the judges may be looking for in your images.
Will I see you there?? Or, at another one of my speaking programs?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography, photography education, photography marketing, success education
I was extremely fortunate in PPA Imaging Competition this past year.
It resulted in earning a Silver Photographer of the Year Award in the Photographic Open and a Diamond Photographer of the Year Award in the Artist category. For those unfamiliar with the awards they are for having all four of your images submitted attaining Merit status which for simplicity sake is defined as an ‘above-average’ image made by an ‘above-average’ photographer. The Silver designation comes from additionally having one of those images selected for inclusion into the PPA Loan Collection. The Diamond comes from all four of the images being accepted in the the Loan Collection of which there were only 24 this year. For more in-depth information on the International Photographic Competition and awards check here.
Diamond four for four Merits with four Loan Collection images. Silver four for four Merits with one Loan Collection image. Imaging Excellence Award for thirteen Loan Collection images. Three medals are for the Degrees the most recent being the Master Artist Degree.
The American Society of Photographers has an additional judging of their member’s Loan Collection images and
Awards a Gold, Silver and Bronze Medallion to the top three ASP member images.
Received lots of congratulations from fellow photographers that remind me of what a wonderful way we have to make a living, learning, sharing while being creative. I am truly thankful that this is the way I choose to make my living and live my life among so many wonderful people.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – You think there are any possibilities for press releases from this good fortune? You betcha!
by successfulbob | photography competition, photography education, success education
I often hear from fellow photographers that they don’t have time for things like imaging competition.
I call BS!
And that brings me to today’s Photo/Art quote from Rich Mann.
“There’s no time like the present, and no present like time.” Rich Mann
I don’t suggest that you take time from your family, but be more efficient with your time at work. There’s a huge difference between being busy and being efficient at your job. I’ve been quite guilty of it at times myself. Thinking that I was too busy to do things and found that non-constructive work habits were not allowing me to get the most important things done while insignificant things were taking up waaaayyy tooooo much time. For some quick ideas I suggest checking out this post from Brian Caporicci on Sprouting Photographeron how a tool meant to save you time, energy and make your life easier has started to become a ball and chain.
That tool’s name is email. And Brian will gives you some solutions to put that bad boy back in place.
…Now what to do with the extra time you just carved out??
HMMM, I know!
Put some time on your schedule to prep 1-2 images a month for competition. Then when the deadline comes around you’ll have plenty of images ready to choose from…
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography education, photography marketing, success education
Keeping your name in front of your potential clients is job when when you are in business for yourself.
If you have writing skills you can reinforce your status as the go-to photography person and stay front of mind by writing for your local newspaper. Here’s an article I wrote for the Villager a local paper here just outside of Sedona. It will be delivered in the next few days by mail. In the meantime you can read the article using the link above online.
Article in local newspaper.
The article is written partly as a local area piece featuring a human interest angle combined with a photography how-to. With hummingbirds being a well loved subject in the area and being difficult to photograph and my wife’s experiences with the delicate birds it’s a perfect pair.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
