Bend, Ore. photographer Julia Kelleher produces the sweetest images for her clients — angelic newborns resting in a blanket or their parent’s arms … innocent little babes captured in earthy, natural tones.
But with one of her latest competition prints, Kelleher took a familiar subject matter and turned it into a dramatic, winning art piece. “A Sketch of Innocence,” pictured above, won the Sunset Print Award at the 2015 Professional Photographers Association Western District print competition.
It’s not hard to tell where master photographer Kelly Schulze’s heart resides … she signs off email correspondence with a “Peace, Purrs, and Tail Wags,” and she owns Mountain Dog Photography in Monkton, Vermont. Yes, she loves all things furry or scaly, and has dedicated her business to capturing their personalities in portraits.
Case in point: Ivory, the albino rabbit she photographed at the Humane Society of Chittenden County, where she has volunteered her photography skills for several years. Ivory’s red eyes and bright pink skin were shot against a blue background, which Schulze says may have seemed “creepy” to some viewers. At a friend’s suggestion, she changed the image to black-and-white and suddenly had an award winner on her hands. She won the Sunset Print Award at the Vermont Professional Photographers competition for this image, titled Hare Apparent.
Sometimes the most dramatic photographs can be made in the blink of an eye. When North Carolina portrait, landscape and architectural photographer Gordon Kreplin toured a local Parade of Homes event, he set up a few lights and took one shot while the hallway was clear. That one shot, named “Upstairs Downstairs,” won Kreplin the 2015 Virginia Professional Photographers Association‘s print competition.
“I probably shot 15 houses that day, and this was the last one,” Kreplin says. “I loved the composition and entry into the rooms as well as the architectural lines.”
To evolve the photo from a straight-forward architectural shot to something a bit more moody, he created a faux high-dynamic range (HDR) in Photoshop. He printed the image on Sunset Fibre Elite, available from LexJet, and mounted it on a 16-x-20-inch black gator board. “I don’t typically finish the print at all by putting a lacquer on it,” he says. “It can make it look milky in the light and it dulls the blacks.”
A concert guitarist for 25 years, Kreplin began photographing the different areas he traveled to while performing. He and his wife began a recording label, and his photos would often grace the CD covers. When people started asking where they could get the images, he realized maybe it was time for a career switch.
He joined the Professional Photographers Association in 2000, but didn’t start entering print competitions until 2009. “I volunteered frequently on the district and state level so I could be there to listen to the judges [during competitions],” he says. Handling his portrait printing in-house helped him perfect his craft.
Today, his portrait studio focuses on high-end portrait work while he also exhibits art photography for the love of it. He’s been printing on LexJet products for the past 10 years, he says. “I’m so grateful to the folks at LexJet and their help for the last bunch of years,” he says. “They’re such helpful tech people to talk to.”
The Professional Photographers Association (PPA) announced that registration is now open for Imaging USA 2012 (www.ImagingUSA.org), featuring three full days of intensive artistic and business education January 15-17 in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
“If you are a professional photographer—or want to be—you cannot miss the opportunity to attend Imaging USA. It will do more for your career than any other show,” says Don Dickson, president of Professional Photographers of America (PPA). “With so many speakers and programs, it’s amazing what you can learn here in a matter of days.”
Photography classes focus on different specialties and tricks of the trade geared toward improving business and photographic skills and the use of new technologies. Some of the industry’s biggest names appear as instructors, including Joyce Tenneson, Mark Bryant, Ed Pedi, Julieanne Kost, and more.
Classes run all day with breaks in between so attendees can visit the Imaging EXPO, a trade show where hundreds of the industry’s leading vendors showcase their products.
Other notable features of Imaging USA 2012 include:
Registration is open to all professional photographers and several options are available, including full-convention and one-day passes. A special Join & Go promotion includes a free full-convention registration for new professional active members who join PPA prior to the show. For more information about Imaging USA or to register for the conference, visit www.imagingusa.org or call 800-786-6277.