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Fabulous news everyone...

6 Award Winning Prints!
Assuming most of you haven't sat through a print competition before. But let me tell you... TIME STANDS STILL! Liz and I drove 4 hours to the annual State convention and print competition this year. Unfortunately for us, comp started at 8 am so we woke up at around 4 am to ... arrive fashionably late. This was my first state competition (I've always been a wuss before) so I really wanted to watch every print as they came around. Little did I know there were over 500 prints entered! Since there's always so much fabulous work entered by big name photographers, my only goal was to not get laughed at. Really, it's a higher standard than you'd think My first print came up around noon on Friday. "The Green Flash." But here's the cool thing: The audience gasped! Which is awesome, because even if the judges didn't like it, at least I felt like I didn't waste my time. But they did like it! It scored a red ribbon at a 79.

Then I fell asleep for about an hour... (hey, I was up late.) I wake up to Liz poking me in my arm and whispering "Empty Vessels is up!" Again, my heart stopped. One of the judges actually got up to get a better view. It took them a long time to enter in a score. Also a red ribbon, this time at a 78.

The next day of judging, I waited FOREVER for these prints to come up! The first one was "Coming Home" - another audience pleaser! Red ribbon at a 78. Then "Triumphant Tulip" came up. It was my case filler this year and didn't think it would go above a 68 really. It got a red ribbon at a 77.

Next up was "Sicilian Sunrise"... which is actually a Sicilian sunset but I typed the name wrong and it was too late to change it. I hoped I wouldn't get dinged for it. The judges call out 79. And then...

"CHALLENGE!"

The print was called back up. Time stopped. And one judge says "Now wait a second guys... I think we missed something here" {Oh please, oh please, oh please say you missed something good}

..."This is a beautiful print! I think it's deserving of merit." {Woohoo!} The judges panel discussed the print pointing out it's merits and flaws. I was praying that they wouldn't get up and look closer. (So was Liz.) Then they rescored...

"80." and a blue ribbon!

Then Snowdog came up. It was probably one of the last 15 prints to score. At the print critique in July, it got an overwhelming "AWWW!!!" from the audience - plus it's my dog so if there's anything that I wanted to do well, it was this one! Scored a 78 and another red ribbon. Well, in my opinion, my dog deserves a 100 and a best in show ribbon - which is the first time 78 was a bad score. This must be why photographers don't enter prints of their own kids. The critique is way too personal!

At the awards banquet, there was a slideshow of all the blue ribbon prints. Out of all of them, mine was the only one left out! :(

Want to see my prints? (It wasn't an option.) Here they are: