Modern Beauty Portraiture by Nylora: We are Back from Atlanta!

We are back!

Lauri, my husband, me and 10,000 of my closest photography friends are home from Imaging USA 2016! What a crazy week!

Anyone that REALLY knows me knows 1) This is only the second time my husband and I have been away without the kids (more than 1 night) since Syd was born - she is 12! 2) That I don't like to fly and the only reason I did fly is because if we drove it would mean 2 more days away! 3) I was determined to go it because I was getting some pretty big awards while I was there! SO - I did it, and Thankfully, I survived! :)

There were so many things that happened I am happy that I went!

1) I received my Imaging Excellence Award. That means that The Imaging Excellence Award recognizes those individuals who have obtained their master's degree in photography and continue to excel in their profession and succeed in PPA's International Print Competition. To be eligible
for this honor, an entrant must hold a master's degree from PPA and have had a
minimum of 13 images accepted into the PPA Loan Collection.

The fact that I received 6 of those Loans this past summer qualified me for that Award! It is really a big deal!

2) While I was there I was also recognized as both a GOLD and DIAMOND Photographer of the year! This means that I entered 2 print cases this year. One in the Photographic Open and one for the Artist category. Diamond is the highest you can get -meaning that all 4 of my entries for my Photographic Open case received LOAN status. The Gold status means 2 out of my 4 entries for my Artist case went Loan. There were only 35 Diamond Photographers Internationally this year and I was one of them!

3) I earned my PPA MASTER ARTIST DEGREE. This is not an easy degree to get. It takes lots of hard work! I was one of only 12 to get it this year out of all the degree recipients. I am #2 in New England to earn it (next to my mentor Ella Carlson - she got hers last year) and the ONLY photographer in NH to have it.

I also got to meet my "Idol" Sue Bryce. She is a HUGE inspiration to me (I was like a 15 year old girl at her first concert!) lol I actually got to talk to her and have my picture taken with her and she signed my book! To say I was on cloud 9 would be an understatement!

Then I visited the Amherst Media Display in the tradeshow! Here I am with the Associate Publisher Kate Neaverth (L) and Associate Editor Barbara Lynch-Johnt (R) and of course I am holding my first book! I am exciting that they are working with me now on my second book!