Award-winning master photographer Terry Blain was not always telling her story from behind the camera. She spent the past two decades traveling all over the country looking for interesting people to capture; however, in her early days as a model, she was the one who was captured on film. One day, after a particularly uninspired photo shoot, she realized that she would have set up the shots differently, had she been the one taking the pictures.

Plymouth, Mass., photographer Stephen Poltorzycki may have only gotten serious about digital photography over the past few years, but his knack for it has certainly come into focus, as he recently won the Sunset Print Award in the “The Fine Art of Photography” show, organized by the Plymouth Center for the Arts. His winning image, “Samson,” is pictured at left.

The tall, dark and handsome subject of Suzanne Fischer‘s award-winning image, Headin’ Home for Christmas, has been a muse for her in years past. She’s photographed the cowboy, Bob Beebense, while he’s been camping out, riding in a blizzard, standing with his horse and more poses over the past few decades. But it was this quiet moment in the snow, bringing home the tree, that landed Fischer her first-ever 100-point score in the Professional Photographers of America’s Northcentral District in Iowa and the Sunset Print Award, thanks to the pristine snow and sweet storytelling of the shot. “The first prints I entered into a competition were of the same cowboy,” says Fischer, who joined the Professional Photographers of America in the 1980s. “I’ve taken pictures of him and entered him every year.” This particular shot was taken last December outside a cabin near Fischer’s home in Atlantic, Iowa. Fischer set up on a hill just north of the cabin to get the shot. “I like to do shots...

Gazing at photographer Dennis Hammon‘s image “Safe Harbor,” it’s easy to slip into a daydream of an early morning by the lake, the water still, the ducks circling together … and feel a sense of calm.

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.