Results From My First PPOC Image Salons
This year I did something new, I entered the Professional Photographers of Canada's Regional and National Image Salons for the first time! The Judge's scores from lowest to highest are Not Accepted, Accepted, Merit, and Excellence. You also enter your images in certain classes, for example, I entered Animals, Press, and Product Illustration.
The Prairie Regional Image Salon was in October 2022 and I entered 4 images. Let's get the first one out of the way. I called it "Spoiler Alert: She Got It" and it was entered in the Press category. While it did get some great feedback, especially for it's peak action, it ended up scoring Not Accepted due to the handlers hand being out of frame. But this just shows how picky the judges are and how hard it is for images to score well! This photo was taken at one of the NADD events I covered at the Big Splash Prairie Dogs pool in Langham, SK.
The rest of the images I'm sharing were entered in both the Prairie Regional Image Salon and the National Image Salon, except one which replaced the image that wasn't accepted at Regionals. The National Image Salon was at the end of February and only accredited members with the Professional Photographers of Canada can enter it.
This first image was my absolute favourite photo I took in 2022. It's of June, my Labrador Retriever, I called it "Late Nights in June" and entered it in the Animals category. Ever since I brought her home as a puppy, I knew I wanted to do some sort of black on black photos with her. Then I found this black stool and it turned into a black on black on black photo!
It was given an Excellence score, a Judge's Choice Award, and the Best In Class Award in the Animals Category at the Prairie Regional Image Salon! It then went on to get a Merit score in the National Image Salon. I also entered this image in the International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards in 2022 and out of over 4000 images, it got to the Top 25 in the Portrait Category.
This next one is of Eddy, a handsome black German Shepherd (can you tell I like shooting black dogs?). This image was taken during a session and I fell in love with it, as did his owner! I called this one "Woodland Shepherd" and entered it in the Animals category. It received an Accepted score at Regionals and a Merit score at Nationals!
The next image is quite different from the rest. I really wanted to see how this image would do in a category that I wasn't as familiar with, Product Illustration. This image was taken for Daelick Machine Werks who built the motorcycle. I called it "Art on Two Wheels" and it received an Accepted score at both Regionals and Nationals!
This last one I only entered in Nationals, which was a little scary as it had never been scored before. It was taken at the Canadian UpDog Nationals during the freestyle competition in July 2022 in Okotoks, AB. I entered it in the Press category with the title "We All Have A Superpower" and it scored a Merit!
I'm looking forward to entering more salons and getting more accreditations with the PPOC. Both have stepped up my game and standards for my work and I'm very proud of how I've grown in the last couple years.
