We are adding a new category to our CIPPA Image Competitions - Lifestyle! What is considered lifestyle photography? According to Wikipedia, the definition of lifestyle photography is “a style of portrait/people photography which aims to capture and document real-life events, situations, or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of the everyday”. Lifestyle is not as controlled as portrait photography or as unscripted as photojournalism. It gives us the chance to create

2022 was a very good year for CIPPA - we have weathered a couple of crazy years and have evolved with a combination of in person and virtual events along with a growing membership. Thanks to Mike Mercadante for his excellent work on creating programs that are interesting, challenging, and informative! We had another strong year of Image Competitions with superb images and excellent judges. We have all improved and continue to learn. The image entries were strong, compelling,

Our final Virtual Image Competition of 2022 was held Monday, November 14. We had 68 excellent entries in 6 categories: Animal, Architecture, Commercial, Electronic Imaging, Fashion, Illustrative, Landscape, Nature, Photojournalism, Portrait Environmental, Portrait Studio, and Wedding . Gold Coast Professional Photographers joined the competition and tho their images weren't included in Category or Best of Show Winners, they submitted powerful imagery and were a very welcome

Our digital world gives us so much ability to create, adjust, finish, and go wild with our photographs. For most of my landscape and nature photos I work mainly with color and contrast, a bit of "digital gardening", highlighting and drawing attention to the compositional elements that made me want to press that shutter. The camera will create a nice version of what it thinks you will like, but that will be just a nice average exposure and combination of color across the entir

What made me pull up the camera and zoom into this mountain? Mainly, it was because when looking through the viewfinder, “it felt right”. Now, define “right” – why did it feel “right”? It doesn’t have dramatic powerful lighting, it was taken at noon – not the magic hour, it doesn’t have that big grizzly bear in the red bikini… I didn’t really think about it when I took the photo, but it contains several compositional elements that made me come back to this image, rank it

Our first Virtual Image Competition of 2022 was held Monday, February 14 - yup Valentines Day! We had 55 excellent entries in 9 categories ~ telling many many different stories. As a first, we invited members of the Gold Coast Professional Photographers to join. Tho their images weren't included in Category or Best of Show Winners, they submitted powerful imagery and were a very welcome addition to the Competition! The judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Fra

Our fourth and final Virtual Image Competition of 2021 was held Monday, November 8, using Zoom Meeting and a shared Microsoft Excel Scoresheet. We had 58 excellent entries in 13 categories ~ from Album to Wedding ~ telling many many different stories. The judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Mel Carl, Michael Collins, and Michelle Pennings. Thanks to Mike Mercadante for designing the shared Excel Sheet, and kudos to all who entered, every single photograph ha

Our third Virtual Image Competition of 2021 was held Monday, August 9, using Zoom Meeting and a shared Microsoft Excel Scoresheet. We had 57 excellent entries in 14 categories ~ from Album to Wedding ~ telling many many different stories. The judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Tim Mathiesen, Rebecca LI, and Antoine Didienne. Thanks to Mike Mercadante for designing the shared Excel Sheet, to Bob Dellis for his radio voice, and kudos to all who entered, every

CIPPA'S next Image Competition will be Monday, August 9th. Zoom gathering at 6:30, Meeting starts at 7:00pm. Register here: Zoom Meeting Registration Image submission deadline is Thursday, August 5th at midnight. Judges will be Tim Mathiesen - PPOC, Rebecca Li - IEPPV, and Antoine Didienne - PPSDC. Some highlights from May's Comp:

Our second Virtual Image Competition of 2021 was held Monday, May 10, using Zoom Meeting and a shared Microsoft Excel Scoresheet. We had 48 excellent entries in 11 categories ~ from Animal to Wedding ~ telling many many different stories. The judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Duane Murphy, and Jim Doyle from PPOC, and John Powers from PPLAC. We departed from the norm, by sending the images to the judges 3 days early for their review and scoring. This experim

Here is a link to a PictureCorrect.com article that I found interesting. The author, Adam Williams, makes some great points about looking for Balance in Landscape photographs. It is not necessarily something we see when we compose, but it is something we feel. https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/compositional-balance-vs-the-rule-of-thirds/ This photo is from Mike Mercadante, and is a great example of balance in a landscape image.

Our first Virtual Image Competition of 2021 was held last night, using Zoom Meeting and a shared Microsoft Excel Scoresheet. We had 54 excellent entries in 11 categories ~ from Animal to Wedding ~ telling many many different stories. The judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Karen Nakamura, Eleanor Gray and Mel Carl, all from PPLAC. Thanks to Mike Mercadante for designing the shared Excel Sheet, to Bob Dellis for his radio voice, and kudos to all who entered, ev

Presentation and impact have a big influence on how an image is judged in competition. Borders and Strokes add a finishing touch and are always appreciated by the judges. Here is a step by step of how I create my Borders and Strokes, there are other methods - which may be easier - but this works for me, maintains the Layers in my Tiff images, and lets me continue to adjust the stroke & border color/size. When finished, I flatten and convert to the required size jpeg for submi

CIPPA had an exceptional year of image competitions with an array of outstanding imagery! All entrants created and entered pieces of vision and interest - congratulations to you all!! Here is a direct link to YouTube for a higher resolution view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIwr2noInKo Cheers!!

Our second Virtual Image Competition was held last night, using Zoom Meeting and a shared Microsoft Excel Scoresheet. We had 51 excellent entries in 12 categories ~ from Animal to Wedding ~ telling many many different stories. Judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Michael Collins - Lompoc, Rebecca Li - Inland Empire, and Mel Carl - Santa Clarita. Thanks to Mike Mercadante for designing the shared Excel Sheet, to Bob Dellis for his radio voice, and kudos to all w

Our first Virtual Image Competition was held last night, using Zoom Meeting and a shared Microsoft Excel Scoresheet. We had 64 excellent entries in 15 categories ~ from Animal to Wedding ~ telling many many different stories. Judging was excellent, by 3 experienced PPC Judges: Pete Rezac - Reno, Elizabeth Toller - Santa Ana, and Kip Cothran - San Diego. Thanks to Mike Mercadante for designing the shared Excel Sheet, to Bob Dellis for his radio voice, and kudos to all who ente

Monday, May 11, 2020! Our second and our first virtual Image Competition of 2020. The meeting starts at 6:30 and will run until we finish. Pull up a comfortable chair and an adult beverage (or not) and enjoy some amazing photography and critiques by experienced judges: Kip Cothran - San Diego, Elizabeth Toller - Santa Ana, and Pete Rezac - Reno! CIPPA members and guests will receive the Zoom Meeting link via email. Contact us if you are interested! Cheers and good luck to

Image Comp questions from a new member. Do I understand correctly that unlimited editing is basically allowed in all categories with the exception of nature? And, in nature can man-made objects be removed or replaced if the background remains consistent with the original image. Can artistic effects such as textures be applied to a nature image overall? Does nature include insects or animals in the wild or is it literally just flora and fauna? Welcome aboard Hutch & thanks fo

The quality of the work in our Image Competition in 2019 was spectacular! Here are the Category Winners ~ Photographers of the Year: Animal - Anna Walley Commercial/Industrial - Yogi Patel Fashion/Editorial - Jim Paliungas Illustrative - Bonnie Mercadante Landscape - Mike Mercadante Nature - Dan Holmes Photojournalism - Larry Skibiski Portrait Environmental - Yogi Patel Portrait Studio - Yogi Patel Wedding - Yogi Patel Channel Islands Professional Photographers Association