PPOC National Image Competition

***UPDATE

Since writing this post, the finalists for the National Image Competition have been announced, and I’m excited to share that I am a finalist for Photographic Artist of the Year for the 6th year in a row! It’s starting to feel a little like “always a bridesmaid, never a bride”, but I’d rather be a finalist than not. In addition, I’m in the running for Best in Class for Fine Art with my image “Nature’s Paintbrush”, Best In Class for Pictorial/Floral with “On The Rocks”, and the Terry Robertson Masters Award with Aurora Caninus. The Awards gala in April will be fun and suspenseful!

The Professional Photographers of Canada National Image Competition judging was this past weekend. Now that scores are official, I can finally share my award-winning images from the Eastern Image Competition back in the fall. The Eastern Competition includes all 4 Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, and Ontario, so it is highly competitive.

I ended up with 3 scores of Merit and 2 scores of Excellence at Nationals, which is pretty good! 😉🏆

Entering image competitions every year pushes me to experiment with new techniques and look at my images with a more critical eye, and that improves ALL of my work. It is truly one of the secrets to my success.

The 5 images I entered in the PPOC National Image Competition 2025

"Snow Day Delight", featuring Rocket preparing for takeoff, scored Excellence and won Best in Class for Animals at the PPOC Eastern Image Competition in the fall. It went on to receive a score of merit at Nationals, and also earned a Bronze Distinction score at the International Pet Photography Awards.

"Nature's Paintbrush" is an oldie that got a bit of a facelift and then went on to score Excellence at both Eastern Regionals and Nationals, as well as winning Best In Class for Fine Art at Regionals.

"Horse of a Different Colour", featuring one of the Percherons at Broadleaf Ranch, is a mixed media, digital painting that I've been picking away at here and there for a couple of years. I finally decided it probably wasn't getting any better and entered it in the Fine Art Class, where it received a score of Merit.

"On the Rocks" is an oldie from Newfoundland in 2015! It has always been a personal fave, that has been on my shortlist of competition entries for years. This year, I finally got around to entering it in the Pictorial/Floral Class and it received a score of Excellence (that's the highest score). Guess I should have entered it sooner, because it’s been several years since I’ve scored so high in that class!

Last but not least, "Aurora Caninus", featuring Jewell the Ibizan Hound in front of the Northern Lights back in October, was my Masters Award entry. (The Masters Award is a kind of side competition that's only open to those with their Masters of Photographic Arts designation). I was happy to get a score of Merit, because I don't mind telling you that photographing an active dog at night is not easy , so it may not be the most technically perfect image I've ever entered, but I think it is something pretty special!