For a professional photographer who has made a career of portraits featuring Santa Claus, the PPA Southwest District winner in the artist category, titled “Urban Assault,” was a huge departure for Chris Smith, M.Photog.

Nice Catch indeed. This LexJet Sunset Award winner, which won Best of Show at the Texas PPA print competition earlier this year, certainly caught the eyes of the judges at the competition, and for good reason.

Nice Catch indeed. This LexJet Sunset Award winner, which won Best of Show at the Texas PPA print competition earlier this year, certainly caught the eyes of the judges at the competition, and for good reason. It’s a picture-perfect rendition of Americana, and more specifically, an Oklahoma slice of it. The red road brings attention to the focal point of the image, which was captured by Melissa Jeffcoat, owner of Melissa Jean Photography in Tecumseh, Okla. Jeffcoat set up the scene with her two boys, having them walk up and down the road until she captured the scene as she originally envisioned it. “My older son caught the fish and they kept walking until I got what I was looking for,” says Jeffcoat. “I bribed them with snow cones.” Jeffcoat says the image reflects almost exactly what the scene and the lighting looked like at capture, excepting some work to take out some distracting sky on the horizon and filling in with some trees. Shot at dusk, Jeffcoat says the timing was right...

Linda Guy is a fine artist who teaches screen printing, lithography and inkjet printing at Texas Christian University. One of her students was LexJet’s own Nolan Dowdy, who’s now Guy’s customer service specialist.