Announcing the Jumpstart Your Photography Business Contest Winners

Announcing the Jumpstart Your Photography Business Contest Winners

We’re thrilled to announce the winners of our Jumpstart Your Photography Business Contest! We received over 2,000 entries from all over the world and all different specialties. Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and share the ways you plan to jumpstart your photo business this year.

Grand Prize Winner

Freelance travel photographer Jacob Maentz is this year’s Grand Prize Winner. Jacob will receive time with each member of our Dream Team Advisory Board, which includes: Lindsay Adlner, Zack Arias, Ilise Benun, David Brabyn, Bill Cramer, Jasmine DeFoore, David Hobby, and Brian Smith. Jacob will also take home $5,000 in gear from Calumet Photographic, including a Canon 6D and $2,000 from Calumet’s exclusive line of photography products.

Jacob is based in the Philippines, which he first visited in 2008 as part of the United States Peace Corps. He returned a few years later to start his photography business. Most of his assignment work is for NGO’s and non-profits working on social or environmental issues. Much of his work is currently offered through Corbis. Jacob also offers one-on-one 14-day workshops in the Philippines.

jacobimages.com

Photo by Jacob Maentz

Photo by Jacob Maentz

Last year, Jacob raised over $11,000 on Kickstarter for the Katutubong Filipino Project, a visual journey documentaring the last remaining indigenous peoples of the Philippines archipelago. In 2013, he hopes to apply for photography grants to continue this project and make it a long term commitment. He also hopes to grow his workshop business and collaborate with a fellow photographer to offer a seminar about photography in the Philippines.

Gold Winners

4 Gold Winners received their choice of a year-long association membership to APA, ASMP, NPPA, or ASPP; a free year of a PhotoShelter Pro account; and a $100 Calumet gift card.

Editorial and commercial photographer Sara Graca specializes in food, lifestyle, and wedding photography. Her business, Palamedes Photography, is based out of northeast Ohio and her clients include moms-to-be, kids, seniors, chefs, artists, dancers, pets, and fianceés. Sara graduated from college in 2010, and in addition to other work, has since published her first photo story. In 2013, she hopes to contact more photo editors, send more mailers, increase her web presence, find galleries and venues to host her work, and enter more photo contests.

www.saragraca.com

Photo by Sara Graca

New Mexico-based photographer Steven St. John was an assistant picture editor and staff photographer at his home town paper The Albuquerque Tribune until it ceased publication in 2008. He now works as a freelance photographer for editorial and corporate clients worldwide. In 2012, he set up a separate website for his wedding photography business, Nuevo Weddings. This year he hopes to create both iPad and print portfolios to show potential new clients in New York.

www.sstjohnphoto.com

Photo by Steven St. John

Tara Leigh is a British photographer living in Spain. In 2012, she contacted a family friend that had recently launched a wedding venue in England and asked to advertise her photography services. She put together a wedding portfolio and booked her first gig at the venue. She hopes to use some of the profit from her wedding photography business to fund more humanitarian work, specifically women and children who are in trafficked situations.

taraleighproject.photoshelter.com

Photo by Tara Stephenson

San Francisco-based photographer Niall David describes himself as a portrait, family, children, and music photographer. He specializes in personalized, customized photo shoots for portrait and family sessions, and also accepts editorial, commercial, and even assignments nationwide. Last year, Niall hired a designer to help create logos, promotion pieces, and marketing materials for his business. He also integrated his WordPress site with his PhotoShelter website. In 2013, he plans to revisit his client list and reach out to past clients to help strengthen his relationships. Niall is active in his local PPA chapter and on Instagram.

Photo by Niall David

Silver Winners

10 Silver Winners will receive one year of a PhotoShelter Pro account.  You’ll get a chance to see their work in an upcoming post.  In the meantime, they are:

Check out our Silver Winners’ work here.

Thanks to Calumet Photographic, our Advisors and the Associations who provided prizes for the winners!

And, thanks again to everyone who entered the Jumpstart Your Photography Business Contest.  We hope it provided you with some inspiration to jumpstart your businesses this year.

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There are 9 comments for this article
  1. TIA INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY at 10:21 am

    Congratulations to all the winners of this contest. PhotoShelter, thanks for providing your subscribers and customers with so many resources and opportunities to improve our photography skills and business acumen. Very happy to be a part of this community.

  2. Edgar G. at 8:32 pm

    For the images and winners backgrounds, looks like the ones that were jump started had already started a while ago. So it was more like PushForward contest. Nice, but a bit misleading. My two cents. Congrats!

  3. Pingback: Gold winner from Photoshelter! | Steven St. John's Photography Blog

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