If you have any photographer friends, you may have noticed their absence from regular daily life this past week. They were probably glued to their computers watching the 2017 International Photographic Competition. Otherwise known as the IPC, the International Photographic Competition is sponsored by the Professional Photographers of America. To those of us in the business, IPC is  the Olympics of photography competitions.

Photographers may enter up to four entries in each of two categories, Photographic Open or Master Artist. For the Photographic Open, images are judged on the 12 Elements of a Merit Image, which include things like impact, technical excellence, creativity and story telling. Images in the Master Artist category are also judged on the 12 elements, but additional emphasis is placed on the quality of the artwork done in the production of the final image. Images are awarded scores based on these judging criteria. An image earning a score of 80 or higher receives a “Merit” award and is accepted into the General Collection. Images that score higher than 85 are then judged for the prestigious Loan Collection, which will be published later in the year.

This year I entered four images in the Photographic Open competition. I was thrilled to have all four images earn merit awards. I was even more excited that one of my images was accepted into the Loan Collection, which meant I ended the competition with a Silver Medal.

But more important than the awards are the benefits I have gotten from entering competition. Competing has pushed me to grow as an artist. It has inspired me to try new things, expand my creativity and pay even greater attention to the technical details of my work.  But it has also helped me to become part of a greater community of artists who push each other to learn and grow.  I am so grateful to PPA and to the many friends I have made who continue to help me become a better photographer.

Here are my entries from this year…

“Faithful” was accepted into the prestigious PPA Loan Collection for 2017

“Three’s the Charm” was accepted into the IPC General Collection for 2017

“My Safe Place” was accepted into the IPC General Collection for 2017

“Is That for Me?” was accepted into the IPC General Collection for 2017