I won!
In June of 2016 I had the opportunity to compete in a
National Collegiate Photography Competition
with Skills USA.
It really was cool being able to challenge myself, and heck, I WON!
This competition was unique because it was beyond a single image/series.
There were written tests; editing, lighting and shooting skill assessments; portfolio reviews, etc.
You can learn more by visiting skillsusa.org
Below you will see images I created during our field shoot segment. The criteria was to create images based on "balanced motion." I found myself drawn to the culinary division of Skills USA, and played around a lot with slow shutter speeds and symmetrical compositions. I was limited to about 2 hours of shooting and 4 final images.
Those final 4 images were also used in the composite portion of the competition. My final composite was the jellyfish image you see at the bottom of this post. Most of my competitors created composites out of recognizable materials, cutting and pasting them together to create a seemingly new photograph. I however, decided to be a bit more extreme and create something complete new!
The other image you see here is of a Nikon advertisement I had to create for the Photoshop layers segment, using the images I made during out product lighting segment. I personally think my ad rocks and can totally see it being used in a magazine or on a billboard!
I was chosen as the representative of my university,
competed at state, and eventually won Nationals.
It was a crazy journey for sure! But, I'm glad it paid off...
after all, I did move the date of my wedding
in order to attend this competition...
THANKS SKILLS USA.
The Print Segment of the competition involved
images we had created prior to competing.
Here are the two I submitted
(click to see the second image)
