Awards of Excellence at 1st year Print Competition / Grand Rapids Portrait Photographer

This year I added another “new” goal to the photography bucket… enter into the formal Professional Photographers of West Michigan (PPWM) annual print competition. PPWM is a local chapter/group of Professional Photographers of America (PPA). Our area has many great talented photographers – this is a group of the elite who strive for the absolute best of the best in our industry – it’s a pleasure to be a member! So, one of my 2014 goals was to enter at least 2 of my images into competition (you can enter up to 4). It is very exciting to share with everyone that not only did I meet that goal (I entered 3) but I came away with 2 Awards of Excellence and 1 Award of Merit! Mind you – this is not a competition for the faint of heart… images are carefully critiqued and scored by a panel of internationally approved photography judges (yeah, they know their stuff). Each judge provides a score then a total average is given to the image. Awards are based within a set range of scores 1-100 so 80+ is award of excellence, 76-79 is award of merit, & so on down the line to 1. What an awesome feeling to start off 2014! All three of my images were from 2013 client photo shoots and I simply could not have done this without ALL OF MY CLIENTS. Everyone is so genuinely supportive of me as an individual artist and in “us” the Epic Edge Photography business. Thank you for a fabulous ride so far – I’m so stinkin’ excited for all that is to come down the road, around the corner, & across the bridge! Cheers to Awards of Excellence!!!

Peace ~

Below is one of my Award of Excellence images shot in 2013 – awarded in January 2014. Image will be on display, with its award, at the March Spring Expo in Hastings, MI.