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...

If you’re familiar with DockDogs, you might be a dog lover, and particularly a lover of dog-oriented sporting events. DockDogs is a canine aquatics competition with a number of events including Big Air, Speed Retrieve, Extreme Vertical and Iron Dog.

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.

The setting for this Sunset Print Award winner at the Intermountain Professional Photographers competition last month is quite stunning, but it’s the photographer’s rendering of the scenery with the bride and groom that makes this one a winner.

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.