One of the great things about photography is the Eureka! moment when all the pieces fall into place for the perfect scene. Modern digital photography allows us to manipulate and create that moment in the processing stage, but when it happens naturally, there’s something special about it.

Kristi Elias’ fine art portrait photography transports her subjects through space and time to capture the essence of their personality or to emphasize their vocation or passion. The five-year-old subject of this Sunset Print Award winner is competitive in martial arts, so Elias sent him underground and created an image that exudes toughness. Entitled You Won’t Bully Me, the print scored a 91 at the Professional Photographers of California annual state competition. It’s a show-stopping image that grabbed the judges’ attention. “It has impact because it’s shocking. You don’t expect to see a kid looking that tough at that age in what is clearly a rough urban underground area,” says Elias. “I cropped into the top of his head to give it more of a forced perspective, which makes him look tougher. The overall color palette I used also portrays aggression and toughness, which is what I was going for.” Photographed in Kristi Sutton Elias Photography’s waterfront studio in Long Beach,...

Almost a year ago we profiled the surreal digital art of Elaine Hughes, who won a Sunset Print Award for Dream World. This year, Elaine’s husband, Robert, enters the fray with his Sunset Print Award-winning image entitled Playing Card.

Misunderstandings sometimes pay off. David Hyttsten, owner of David’s Photography in Monticello, Minn., thought that he needed to print on LexJet Sunset inkjet media to be eligible for the Sunset Print Award at the recent Northern Light PPA print competition.

At first glance, this Sunset Print Award winner is abstract art, but for Linda Dahlberg, owner of Creative Cards by Linda in Newburyport, Mass., it’s far more than that and atypical of her New England landscape and seascape photography. Dahlberg won the award for Best Print in Show – as well as a Sunset gift certificate, trophy and pin – at the recent Fine Art of Photography competition in Plymouth, Mass., for her print entitled Lowell’s Boat Shop Workroom Door, which is exactly what it is. Lowell’s Boat Shop, according to Dahlberg, is the oldest continually-running boat shop in the U.S., and is on the Merrimack River in Amesbury, Mass. “The building is so very special and it’s so neat to know that men and women are still making wooden boats. I’m attracted to the place because it’s all wood,” says Dahlberg. “The paint on that door is what the guys must do when they’re done painting to clean up their brushes. I’m not an abstract photographer; I’m a landscape photographer, but I...

Where does photography end and fine art begin? That’s the question the U.S. Copyright Office had for Wolfgang Jasper when he submitted his hybrid work for Copyright protection. It’s basically the same question judges at the recent Virginia Professional Photographers Association (VPPA) print competition.

Little Red Riding Hood finds herself out of her element, but still perfectly placed in this Sunset Print Award winning image by Lisa Cuchara, who owns BREA Photos in Hamden, Conn., with her husband Tom. Cuchara won the Sunset Print Award at CTPPA’s 65th Annual Convention & Awards Ceremony, held March 16 in Windsor, Conn. The Cucharas hold a number of photography workshops and Grand Central Terminal in New York City is one of their favorite locations, though the location requires a special photographer’s permit. This time around they were looking for something different and out of the ordinary, so they brought models along with them and a Red Riding Hood cape. “We had a friend of a friend make a Little Red Riding Hood cape because she knew someone who had a wolf, so we did a photo series in the woods. Then we thought it would be a good idea to bring this cape to New York City; it’s the modern Red Riding Hood in Grand Central,” explains Cuchara. “This model took off her shoes,...

Christie Kline’s specialty is bringing out the personalities of babies and children through her photography. Each portrait she captures at Sonshine Portrait Design in Germantown Hills, Ill., is unique to the subject, but no subject is more unique than you.

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.

You can never have enough information, even in the Information Age. Digital Art Creation, which is a quarterly online publication, is filled with content that includes photo and post-capture techniques, printing and post-printing tips, and a variety of other subjects of interest to photographers, designers and graphic artists.