As summer turns toward fall, people in the United States get up for the last big rumble of summer- our local State Fairs. Utah’s Fair is no slouch, and has a tremendous competition, and a great variety of highly talented photographers contributing. This year, I was able to win a First Place for my architecture photography, in this case a condominium tower downtown I shot for PMI Property Management in Lehi, and Chelsie Blackledge.
Just after returning from the Oregon Coast shoots last week, I was notified that the winners of Best of State had been announced, and my personal and landscape work won Best of State for Nature Photography. Just being nominated is incredible, but to win Best of State has my head spinning. The Best of State Awards were created to recognize outstanding individuals, organizations and businesses in Utah. They judge the body of work of an artist, not just a single image. They also looks at one’s contributions to the state of Utah, and whether your work adds to making Utah a better place. To me, this award is so much more than winning something for taking one good picture; this is about a continued high standard for quality and creativity, and for giving back to the community. And while this was won for my personal work, I think it is definitely worth posting here at R/E Photography so you know exactly who and what kind of photographer I am.
Well I entered the BYU Monte Bean Nature Photography Competition and Exhibition again this year. I have a fondness for this one. Its close by, there is some serious competition, and it is the first real competition I have ever entered. Lisa pushed me into this photo contest two years ago. I got a call the morning the show opened telling me I had one first place that year, and I was astounded- I had never really won a competition before, much less won! So, yes, I find this photo contest real close to me.
This year, I decided to try something new. I was going to see if I could get some of my pictures on exhibition in a “real” gallery. So I sent off some images to four galleries in exhibitions that sounded interesting or seemed like be looking for my sort of work.
Then I waited.
One of my favorite competitions is the Utah State Fair. Its just fun- a state-wide competition against your neighbors. It is a great place to be recognized for the work you you…. in my case, for fun. The pieces I enter at the Utah State Fair are what I do to please myself. If I do well, great; if not, no big deal.
I entered an image I shot last July while on vacation with my family in Moab in the 2015 Nature Photography Competition and Exhibition at the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. The exhibition ran February 26th through April 3rd. Just before the start of the exhibition, I got a call announcing that I had won an award at the show. I asked what I had won, and it turned out I placed first for the Dead Horse Gorge image.
We got a wonderful surprise yesterday when we checked the old email yesterday…. a missive from the website Houzz that declared we had been been voted by the Houzz community as a winner of their Best of Houzz 2015 awards. To be chosen by the users of that site is a great honor to us, and we thank those of you who participated and voted for us. We were picked in the Customer Service category, which really does mean a lot to us, because our goal is to be the best in customer service to all our clients.