Personal Blog: Maria wins first place at Austin PPA monthly print competition

HOLY CRAP! It is 10:44pm and I just got home from the monthly meeting of the Austin Professional Photographers Association, we meet at the Holiday Inn at the Arboretum in Austin every month. It was a long meeting tonight and I can’t belive it but I won FIRST PLACE for the monthly print competition.   That is exciting.

I have to say that I am super stoked about all the awesome stuff that has been happening to me with my photography. I took home best portrait, best illustrative and best in show trophies at the annual PPA print competition for Austin guild, I took home distinguished print and two first place trophies from the Texas state competition in Kerrville and tonight another first place.  Cool I have been truly blessed with much good luck in the last 6 weeks or so.

I also want to congratulate William (second place) and Brian (third place). It was so cool to see those two next to me. William is like my partner in crime and we talk about photography all the time-this was William’s first time entering and I am so proud of him. Brian was a former student of mine and I was so excited to see him in the top three, Brian did a lovely job with his entry. You can see their winning pieces on the Austin PPA website.

I had two favorite parts of the evening. First…  when my name was called as the winner, I specifically heard a few people say “I thought that was hers”. Second…someone came up to me after the meeting and said..”you teach lighting? I know lighting but I don’t know THAT kind of lighting! Do you do 1:1 training, we will be talking soon!”  Well, I was excited about the first thing because that means that people know my brand and my work by looking at it.  I think it is pretty awesome that people are recognizing my work without telling them. cool   The second was cool because it makes me feel good that other professional photographers respect my lighting ability-which is good since I actually do teach it and I love teaching it.

Anyway, I know I am rambling but I was excited so I thought I would write about it.  In case you want to know what the winning image was, here it is. Hope you enjoyed the blog.