Hi. I am so excited. Wanna know why? Well, I might venture to say you already know since the title kinda gave it away. Ha ha. Anyway,as you know Eric and I have been in Europe over the last couple of weeks and got home just in time to go to the Austin Professional Photographers Association (APPA) annual Christmas party at the Renaissance Hotel and…bum bum bum, they gave me a trophy for APPA 2009 Photographer of the Year!  That was so exciting for me. That was an honor for several reasons-why, ask you? Well, let me tell you.

Number 1: I’m not gonna lie to you–it is AWESOME to win another trophy. For those that know me, I tend to be quite competitive BUT…here is the thing, I don’t just want to win a trophy because it is a trophy. I want to win it because I put in hard work.

Number 2: Not a lot of people knew this but It was a SUPER close race this year between me and Carrell Grigsby who is a master photographer and there was only one point separating us for Photographer of the Year as of October 31st, 2009. ONE POINT?? Drrraaaammma! I love it. I HAD to win in November in order to get PPA Photographer of the Year. Well, let me tell you about Carrell. Carrell has been in PPA for a long time, she has competed for many years and I have been competing since October or November 2008 (only about one year). Why am I telling you all of this? Because of this: Carrell’s competitive drive and Carrell’s wins made me want to be better. My print in November was made because I thought it was my only shot at potentially beating her. Now, I am not digging on Carrell so if you are reading it like that-don’t. Kiddies, the point of this whole thing is that this is what PPA competition is really about. Becoming better and better and pushing yourself to do things better because there is someone who you perceive is better than you. Carrell knows the rules on competition, she follows them and she has won enough to get her masters.  Competition prints require some extra stuff due to all the rules!

In my acceptance “speech” last night, the first person I thanked was Carrell for making me want to be better. She and I have talked about this way back when and we have known about the one point between us. Ha ha! We were talking about “Bringing it” to the November meeting to see who could actually cinch the title this year. Carrell and I are friends and further more, I look up to her and she knows from the bottom of my heart that had she not been there with some strong prints this year, I may never have reached some new levels in my own personal photography growth. She sent me a message last night and it was titled “for your blog”.  I read it this morning and I quote “You can quote me anytime saying that I’ve never had so much fun coming in second.”-Carrell.  Big compliment for me. Thank you Carrell.

Wow, was that a sappy blog or what? totally. ha ha

Well, onto the summary of the year. Here are the awards that I have won this year and a small slideshow with the images that have led me to getting this trophy.
APPA:
Monthly conpetitions: 3 First place, 3 second place, one third place ribbons
Annual competition: 2nd highest print case, Trophies for Best Portrait, Best Illustrative, and Best in Show

TPPA Texas State Convention: Trophy for Best new entry. Trophy for Best Wedding Album. Distinguished print award.

SWPPA (South West Regionals, 6 states): 3 merits out of 4 prints entered. Two distinguished print awards.

Here are those photographs, enjoy! REMEMBER, if you are viewing this on an iPHONE, you cannot see these images (flash) and if you are an outlook subscriber, you actually need to go to the web www.mariabernalphotography.com/blog to see the photos.