Sometimes the key to award-winning photography is not to shoot with a competition in mind. In the case of this Sunset Print Award winner at the recent Twin Cities Professional Photographers Association competition, this image evolved into an award-winner. Rod Oman, who owns The Imagery Photography Gallery with his wife, Stephanie, was working at the Commemorative Air Force Minnesota Wing as part of a fundraiser for the organization. Oman was joined by other photographers, makeup artists and models as they created scenes focusing on vintage WWII aircraft. “We were shooting the exterior of one of the airplanes, and someone suggested we shoot inside the plane. I shot away with the model, Elizabeth Noir, looked at the images in the camera back and thought it might be cool to work up,” recalls Oman. “It was really a simple shot with natural light, but the post-processing is what makes it different.” Here’s Oman’s original capture before he applied some magic in post-processing. ...

A classic American scene, photographed by veteran photographer Uldis Ilvess and entitled Peace on Earth, is one of our first Sunset Print Award winners for 2014. By virtue of his award at the recent Professional Photographers of Iowa competition for Peace on Earth, Ilvess is also one of the first to be entered into the Sunset Print Award national competition.

Christine Cook likes to shoot in the rain for two reasons: the lighting it can create and that it allows her to capture moments others likely won’t capture because of the rain.

If you run a print shop that needs quality printing and the ability to switch print media quickly, check out the HP Designjet Z5400 PostScript ePrinter at LexJet.

Expert in décor printing (and every other type of wide-format printing), Avant Printing, Richmond, Calif., has found the perfect recipe for wall-mounted décor graphics for educational, government and corporate clients.

Poster printing is a print shop staple. A perfect fit for wide-format inkjet poster printing is where variable data is included in a given poster print run.

Did you know that you can create high-quality, durable and profitable wall murals, canvas wraps, and trade show and display graphics with HP Latex Printers from LexJet using a variety of inkjet media, including media for aqueous printers?

When you focus on a specific market you’re subject to its whims and cycles. In order to weather whatever storms that may batter that particular market you have to be flexible and creative. Dimpled Rock, a company that specializes in golf course photography, has done just that. We first profiled Dimpled Rock about five years ago in the In Focus eNewsletter as the business was first starting to take off. With figurative economic storms and literal storms, like Hurricane Sandy, Dimpled Rock’s Gary Kellner says the photography side of the business has been stagnant as of late. “The general economic conditions at some of the golf clubs have had an impact on our photography. We had also focused our efforts on New England and Sandy pretty much devastated the landscape in a lot of areas. They’re losing trees and having to re-do their bunkers, so they’re not ready to have their courses photographed until they can get them back in shape,” explains Kellner. However, the print production side...

Julia Kelleher, owner of Jewel Images in Bend, Ore., says she initially struggled with this composition, entitled He Has Arrived, but decided not to worry so much about the end result and plow ahead with her concept. The result was a 100 score and a LexJet Sunset Award in the Master Artist category at the PPA Western District print competition held in late August. “We get so stifled during the creative process because we’re scared the outcome won’t be what we want it to be. Instead, we should be going back to our childhood way of thinking and just have fun with it. Obviously I care what the final product it is, but I finally said to myself, ‘Let’s try it and see what happens,’ which allowed me to be more creative and produce the end result I was looking for,” says Kelleher. “For the longest time I was scared to enter that category because I didn’t think I was technically sound enough to do it. When the pieces started coming together, however, it was technically sound and it looks...

LexJet was recently included in Digital Output’s 19th Annual Top 50 Readers’ Choice Awards. Each year Digital Output’s readership dictates the top 50 winners and ten honorable mentions, as well each companies’ top products.