I get asked all the time why I enter International photography competitions. It’s simple

Photography as a craft is truly a never-ending lifelong learning journey. There is always something to learn and ways to grow in our industry. To give my clients the excellence I desire in my work, there is a level of mindset to continue to improve and aim for perfection. Yes, perfection is a strong word; each person has their own meaning of what perfection is.

Why I enter some of the most renowned international Photography Competitions :

My daily goal is to give my clients a full Portrait experience that reflects their individual families’ requests and desires and that meaningful memories are made in the process. What is equally important when a client comes to me is that they get those truly beautiful pieces of art.

These are investments, and They do become more valuable as time passes. There is a sentiment that time flies too quickly and as I get older, I realize it more each day. These frozen memories hold your family’s legacy. So my goal is to persevere those memories for families at the highest industry standards, not just in the highest quality of prints but in the actual work in the photograph.

In reality, anyone can pick up a camera and tell a story or take a great photo, especially with their phones these days. But that’s not what I do. My vision when I started my portrait studio was to make full experiences that are meaningful and special. This means putting extra time into each client and truly getting to know them, so I truly give each client their dream photos.

I believe in digging into the craft of photography and constantly improving my craft, striving to give my clients more than just your typical photo that gets hidden on a laptop after a few weeks. I create heirlooms that become more valuable with time, Moments that can be seen and treasured and looked at for generations to love and pass on.

Portraits, in my mind, have layers to them; they not only tell a story but capture an emotion or feeling and need to be meaningful to the person it is created for. This is why I enter Competitions to see if my work levels up with this intention and meets all those requirements and how I can improve them.

Results from the 2022 award season :

Im so excited to share some of the awards won this past year. Here are the results from 2022!!

The big highlights were winning:

Second Place in the Portrait creative category,

Second Place in the family portrait category,

First Place in the newborn category ( child must be under age 1).

First Place in the Teen category,

These Big awards helped me achieve the level of Craftsman. The rest of the portraits shown in the gallery are placed within the top 3-15 places shown in each category.

In addition, what makes these awards so special is all of these portraits except two ( which were the ducky teen Portrait and the little girl in the red dress), were all the client work that I submitted.

Click Here to See my Cosmo Award Profile; https://cosmosawards.com/participation/member/362

2022 Print Finale Winner

One of the beautiful parts of sending Portraits to such a high-level international competition is they have a Final Print Competition at the end of the year. A huge selection of renowned photographers who placed throughout the year was asked to submit their best work in print which is comparatively different from just digital. copy.

There is just a huge difference between print compared to digital; the richness of the colours, the depth and the feeling of the textures is just truly amazing, especially when collaborating with my favourite print company in Italy. I was beyond humbled and honoured to have my Let’s read together teen Portrait win first place. This is such a prestigious honour as this portrait was completely captured in camera and work put into creating such a sweet story.

Click Here to see all the Catagory Winners from the Print Finale.

https://cosmosawards.com/print-finale-2023?fbclid=IwAR2z47MfdYRa6JERpmghwLGn21rAJOBU3zQCkQQFrMC9dUFYYwNClZKhk_4

How to book a session

Creating special heirlooms that truly reflect each individual client is truly special. If you would like me to create a special session that is truly meaningful and special, that are true keepsakes and heirlooms. contact me, and we can talk more about creating your very own portrait experience.

https://soniagourliefineartphotography.com/contact

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