Photographer earns dual recognition from professional photographers association
Swift Current photographer Bobbi-jo Knakoske earned a pair of professional designation awards from the Professional Photographers of Canada - Saskatchewan Region.
Knakoske had two of her images singled out during the annual provincial image competition.
Her image ‘Zoom’ won the prestigious Best Commercial Image Award in the Editorial class. In addition, her photo ‘Armoured’ was chosen by two judges to earn Judge’s Choice Awards.
“It’s kind of a big deal. They have a panel of judges, and you have to have a certain amount of judges agree on if that image makes it,” she explained of her first ever double recognition at the provincial level.
“To me it validates my education and also my creativity. And it shows that you’re a capable professional photographer.”
The photo ‘Zoom’ is a sharply focussed image of her two children and her nephew tubing behind a motor boat.
“The lighting was perfect. And their expressions, they’re laughing and having fun. And the water is splashing up. I just had good timing with everything.”
Admittedly, she knew during her shooting that she had something special because of the conditions, but one specific image was clearly better than the rest.
“I kind of did (know). But it was just that one that had the perfect expressions, and the tube catching a little bit of air, and then the sun was in perfect spot. I was watching for it. It was not a fluke, I was kind of waiting for the light.”
Two of the judges chose the portrait ‘Armoured’ as their favourite overall of all the images submitted,
with the photo also advancing as a finalist in the Best Portrait of the Year category.
“That one I planned. It was a theme session. So I had a model come in. I had an amazing make-up artist do it, Terry Lyn Doulias. I had a head piece of chainmail from Mailletec. And a heavy dress which was all chainmail. And there was a sword covering across her eye. So it was an in your face photo. And then I added a digital background just to give it a little more pizzaz.”
She was pleased to showcase her creativity from vision to finished product for this portrait.
“I like putting my creativity to use. It keeps me going. I’m always doing different things from business pictures to grads and families and newborns. So it’s nice to try something different that comes from my head and try to put it all together.”
Knakoske previously won Saskatchewan Region awards in the Child Portrait category in 2014, and a Best In Class: Fashion Award back in 2007.