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,...

Jeff Gulle has found photogenic locations to demonstrate photography techniques to his students at North Georgia Technical College in Clarksville, Ga. The garage featured in this Sunset Print Award winner at the Georgia Professional Photographers Association competition, The Mechanic, is one of those favored spots.

Melissa Thompson, owner of Pistachio Alley Photography in Cody, Wyo., is known far and wide for her stellar baby photography. Though it’s not all she does, it’s her specialty. Each year she highlights her specialty at competition. This image, She’s a Dream, was entered in both the Wyoming and Montana Professional Photographer competitions. At the Montana competition, She’s a Dream wowed the judges and she picked up a Sunset Print Award. Printed at Pistachio Alley on Sunset Bright Velvet Rag 315g with a Canon iPF8300, Thompson says, “The judges for both state competitions liked the presentation, the paper it was printed on and the print quality. The general consensus was how the image worked well with the Sunset Velvet paper and how the tones were muted, not showing a true black, giving it a dreamlike quality.” To create the image, Thompson started with a concept she came up with last year for competition, but says she shelved it because “it just wasn’t working out right.”...

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.

Kelly Willis, owner of Modello Fine Portraits in Deer Park, Texas, made a deal with one her best clients who wanted a boudoir photo session. She gave the client and any friends who also wanted a boudoir session a special rate if they agreed to pose for photos she could use at 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.

Kenny and Debra King help rescue dogs. That’s not all they do with their stellar portrait photography, but they’ve honed their process for animal photography to the big benefit of a local animal shelter, and particularly the animals themselves.

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.