I was one of two Nominees for Manitoba’s Photographer of the Year – Professional Photographers of Canada-Manitoba.  How exciting is that???

Last night – Friday, March 25th, the Professional Photographers of Canada-Manitoba held their Annual Awards Banquet.  It was held at “Inn at the Forks” in Winnipeg.  What a fabulous venue!

Desmond Snyman, PPOC-MB Vice President,  was the Master of Ceremonies and he did a fabulous job!  The evening also featured a tribute to Ken Duguid, a long-time Trade member that retired at the end of December.  Ken worked for Colortron, then Lifetouch Canada and before his retirement – Technicare Imaging.  Ken is a great friend and I wish him well in his retirement!

A special feature was a 20 minute Travelogue by well-known Winnipeg Photographer, Manuel Sousa.  We ‘toured’ 12 countries in 20 minutes.  I was speechless after the show, as were many of the people in attendance.  What amazing images from an amazing photographer!

There were two nominees for Photographer of the Year – Alexandra Morrison and myself!   Congratulations to Alex on her win as Manitoba’s 2011 Photographer of the Year – she is a great photographer and I have admired her work for years!

Here are my 4 winning entries.

“Masks” – taken while on vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida.  Epcot – Italy Pavillon.  A wall of Masks intrigued me – but I knew that it needed something to spice up the image – and so I added a ‘face’ into one of  the masks.  One of the judges remarked that it looked as if it was a person with a mask painted on his face!   This image received two Judge’s Choice Ribbons!  Thank you to judges:  Ingrid Misner and Milton Taylor!

The image, titled “Eight” was also taken at Walt Disney World – this time in the Magic Kingdom.  I saw the lone duck swimming around and was amazed at the ripples in the water.  I still can’t figure out where the second set of ‘rings’ were formed – but I was so pleased to see that it resembled the number ‘eight’!

“Rhythm of the Night” was photographed in Las Vegas.   I hadn’t been to Vegas in almost 20 years and found it had changed so much.  I was walking down “The Strip” at night and was amazed at the number of people and the bright lights.  But rather than do the normal photo of the casinos lit up with all the lights, I decided to try a different angle.

This was one of my favorite images.   Also taken in Nevada during the WPPI (Wedding  and Portrait Photogaphers Internationa) Convention.  I attended the convention with other Manitoba Photographers – namely Joel Ross, Trevor Brucki, Patty Boge, Jeremy Dueck and Manuel Sousa - and they called themselves “The ‘W’ List“.  We went out into the desert to do a “Trash the Dress” Session and I was asked to photograph the group.  How do you pose a group of photographers?   It’s really easy – as they do the ‘posing’ themselves!  :-)  I really love this image!

In just a few days I will be flying out to London, Ontario to Judge the Professional Photographers of Canada National Image Salon.  I’m really looking forward to that.  Seeing the wonderful work that photographers across Canada are doing is really inspirational to me.

On Sunday evening, we had the Awards Banquet.  In my capacity as Merit Chair, I was pleased to present two photographers with their Honour of Fellowship Certificates and two others that had achieved the Emerald and Sapphire levels of the Honour of Fellowship.

Also that evening the awards were presented.  When it came time to announce the Finalists for Photographer of the Year I was shocked to hear my name called – along with Fred Elcheshen, Bruce Hendricks and Jeremy Hiebert!   These were my winning entries…

This image is titled “Follow Me” and was taken in Africa a year ago while canoeing on the Zambezi River…

This one is titled “Lone Tree” – also taken on the Zambezi River with a view of the Zambian hills on the opposite shore.

The other image was taken at a session last September and I titled it “Vintage Look”…

Congratulations to Fred Elcheshen who was chosen as Photographer of the Year 2009!

I have wanted to post more African images – but I haven’t even gone through all 8850+ images as yet!

But on Monday, October 20th, I attended the Awards Banquet of the Professional Photographers of Canada-Manitoba. I drove in to Winnipeg, still quite jet-lagged. It was great seeing old friends.

The banquet dinner was excellent and one of my jobs as Honours Chair was to present three very deserving photographers with their Honour of Fellowship Ribbons and Certificate.

For the first time since 2004 I entered images into the competition (in the past few years I either was judging the competition or was Jury Chair and then you can’t enter). So I was a bit hesitant about sending in my 4 images as we are getting some wonderful new photographers that are doing some great stuff!

I was thrilled to receive 2 Accepted Images and 1 Merit Image. Two of the judges chose two of my images as their “Judges Choice” and I also received 2 Major Awards! I was blown away!

Needless to say – I’m still grinning from ear to ear!

But that wasn’t all. The President of Professional Photographers of Canada, Chris Stambaugh, as well as Nelson Simard, PPOC National Accreditation Chair, and very good friend, were both there to present one more Certificate. I was stunned and honoured to receive the “Honourary Life Member” Certificate and designation. It was completely unexpected and so special to have Nelson present it to me and to have Chris representing the National Association!

I can now proudly add HLM to my credentials!

Marlene Fast, MPA, SPA, F.Ph., HLM