International Photographic Competition 2019 – SILVER MEDALIST!
For the third time in four years I’ve been honored with a silver medal award in the annual International Photographic Competition put on by the Professional Photographers of America! This is truly humbling and each time I’ve received the award it makes me grateful for the judges who seem to appreciate my work as much as I do.
In order to submit images into the competition it is first required that you are a member of the Professional Photographer’s of America (PPA). Then you can submit up to four images to be judged. This is one of, if not THE largest and most respected photography competition in the world and to even merit in the competition demands respect. To have all four of my images merit three of the last four years is incredible. I don’t know what else to say, I’m speechless.
I’m sure what you’d really like to see are the images that I submitted in the contest so you can judge for yourself. Well, OK, here they are. Let me know what you think!
Dawn’s Embrace
It was one of my last days in New Zealand when I came across this view from the end of a rocky road on the South Island. The sun was just starting to dip in the sky and I loved the magical feel of the pier and the reflection in front of me, so I waited until the sun got further and further down, creating an almost watercolor-like effect of surreal grandeur.
It was a fitting goodbye as I would soon depart for the airport and dreams of returning would haunt my dreams for months. Taking me back to my photography portfolios as I stared in a semi conscious state, reminiscing of the perfect landscapes.
On a side note, you may have noticed I called this image “Dawn’s Embrace” while in fact it was shot at Dusk. It should have rightfully been titled “Dusk’s Embrace” however when I submitted the image to the 2019 International Photographic Competition I entered it as “Dawn’s Embrace”. It ended up winning top honors, so I kept the name as is. But it was shot at dusk. Just don’t tell anyone…
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Daybreak in Eden
This is one of my favorite locations on Maui to photograph the sunrise. It’s from a little cave out in Hana that takes about 2 hours to get to from my home in Waikapu. So getting up 3 hours before sunrise, trekking down there and setting up for the shot seems difficult at 3am, and sometimes there are so many clouds or rain that there is no sunrise anyway, but when there is, the scene is perfect.
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Makena Wailana
Iʻm not sure why I see so many photographers come down to the beaches here in Maui and shoot the sunset then quickly pack up and leave. Sometimes the light after the sunset is 10x better than during!
This particular evening the sunset was good, but after it went down it left this glow that I could watch change the color of the clouds from gray to blue above my head while still emanating light from the horizon in brilliant swathes of yellow and orange.
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Old 3303
In 2018 I went out to Death Valley in the California desert for the first time. It was a tremendous experience and nearly everywhere I turned was something awesome to photograph.
One night I went up to an old Ghost town and found this deserted railway car. No train tracks, no other cars around, just this. I thought it might make a pretty cool shot. Guess what? It did!
