Prints That Win: You Light Up My Life

Photographer Tim Shaffer has been behind the lens at many a wedding. In fact, he shot his first nuptial event when he was 17, before embarking on a career as a newspaper photographer. Later, in 1991, he opened his professional studio, and hasn’t looked back. Today, he and his wife, Dana, run The Classic Image photography studio in Fort Plain, NY, where they specialize in weddings, senior portraits, family photos and more.

LexJet Welcomes National Sunset Print Award Winner Kari Douma

LexJet’s headquarters in Sarasota, Fla., welcomed 2015 National Sunset Print Award Winner, Kari Douma, to our offices and home town as part of her first place prize for her image, “Aged Gracefully.”

The Grandville, Mich., photographer posed with her husband, Vince, pictured in center above, with LexJet’s Tom Gruss and Rachel Gamberg.

2015 Sunset National Print Award: Meet the Judges

We’re gearing up for the second annual National Sunset Print Award on Nov. 15 in the fifth floor gallery of the S-One Holdings Corporation Sarasota headquarters, home of LexJet and Sunset. Throughout the year, the LexJet-sponsored Sunset Print Awards take place at various professional photography associations across the country. Nearly 30 winners of the 2015 competitions were entered for this year’s National Sunset Print Award grand prize.

Prints That Win: WaterCourse

Steeno Jamie_WaterCourseYou may not think that an accounting, finance and human resources professional would be inclined to turn out gorgeous photography like the winning image, WaterCourse, pictured at left. But maybe you haven’t met photographer Jamie Steeno yet.

Green Bay, WI-based Steeno is the force behind this stunning image as well as other industry-recognized photography. In March, WaterCourse won the Sunset Print Award at the Wisconsin Professional Photographers Association‘s annual competition.

WaterCourse was taken as the sun was setting over the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, Steeno explains. It was taken with multiple exposures, and then six photos were stitched together to create the final effect.

Steeno says she’s been taking photos ever since her mom put a camera in her hand when she was about 7 years old. She played around with the craft for years, and “truly paid attention to it about two years ago,” she says, when she got involved with WPPA.

She’s been fine-tuning her photography by learning Photoshop as well as proper composition, exposure and color balance. Not surprisingly, the ambitious professional was asked to take the helm as director of WPPA this year, and she’s pursuing her masters of photography degree.

Steeno juggles her burgeoning photography career with her day job as a business manager for a manufacturing company that reaches 120 different countries. She also produces photography for the company’s website and advertising needs, she says.

Having her work judged in print competitions is a vital part of the education process. “It’s super important,” she says. “Everyone who participates in PPA should be involved in print competitions.”

Prints That Win: Spiderwort

Spiderwort

When it comes to photography and print competitions, a lot of contestants go for unusual subject matter to try to catch the judges’ eyes. But Lakewood, NJ, photographer Steven Yahr takes a different approach.

“The subject matter in my competition prints is always very simple,” Yahr says. “When I do workshops, I tell photographers that the hardest things to photograph are the things we see every day. You become immune to them.”

So when he walked past the spiderwort plant with the vibrant, violet blooms on the side of his house, a floral he’d bypassed day after day, he knew he’d found his next subject. “I have quite a few of them in my yard,” he says. “So I blocked the light and used reflectors – the same as you would do for a portrait.”

With a little Photoshop help to add a bit of contrast, “Spiderwort” earned Yahr the Sunset Print Award during the PhotoNorthEast Image Competition, held in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, earlier this month.

Yahr works as a contract wedding photographer and has competed in print competitions since 2000, although he’s been a member of his state’s PPA affiliate since 1993.

“I held off competing for quite a few years,” he says. “I was just observing other people’s work and asking a lot of questions. I tell other photographers: Don’t get discouraged. Try to hear what judges have to say. The critique is more valuable than score itself.”

Although weddings are his bread-and-butter, Yahr says his competition pieces are inspired by the work of artists, rather than other photographers. However, when photographing his competition subjects, he uses his portrait know-how, and vice-versa.

“It’s the same principles – the lighting has to be correct, and you need an unobtrusive background,” he says. “The same things that make portraits work, are the things that make still lifes work, too.”

Yahr paired the vulnerability of the delicate violet petals and the gentle highlight on the yet-to-bloom buds, with a dramatic black backdrop and double violet stroke border, to create his striking, winning image.