Early on, at the beginning of my wedding photography career, I discovered Fearless Photographers. It was a amazing group of photographers around the world who loved to create images that were bold, daring, and fresh. Although there are other photojournalist competitions in existence (WPJA's quarterly competition comes to mind), Fearless has become THE competition for photojournalists who are looking to create photos that are innovative, evocative, gorgeous, and tell amazing stories.
I've been a member for about a year, and always loved looking through each new collection of winners. I entered this last collection mostly feeling like I should, since I was a member, but not really expecting much of anything. After all, out of the approximately 10,000 photos submitted to this collection, only 3-5% would be selected for the current collection. That's not great odds, especially considering the caliber of photographers who make up the Fearless community.
I kept checking the Fearless Photographers Facebook page yesterday, as I knew the latest collection of images would be posted, and I was eager to look through them. Imagine my absolute and ridiculous excitement when I saw that the photo I had entered, of little Kyler practicing his handstands on Kayla and Brent's dance floor, was actually selected for Collection 17! My mouth may have dropped open. I may have Facebook messaged one of my photographer friends and said something along the lines of, "I am hypervenilating. I am hypervenilating. I won a Fearless Award!"
One of my biggest, most audacious goals has been to win a Fearless Award. I didn't think it would happen this soon. I still don't feel I have the words to explain how excited I am.
Here's my winning image. Make sure to check out the full collection of amazing images here. It is a dream come true to be amongst such amazing photographers from around the world in this collection!
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