An Atlantic woman has won a prestigious award from the Professional Photographers of Iowa, in their annual winter print competition. The event was held Feb. 1st and 2nd in Cedar Rapids. Kathy Somers’ case score (the total score of up to four entries submitted) placed her in the top 10 non-master class. Two of her entries were awarded a merit (that is a score of over 80 out of 100).

Kathy Somers displays her winning photo album

Somers said one of her entries was an album of the Atlantic Sesquicentennial year. The professionally bound album included images of the city from the ground and in from the air, courtesy Mark Smith and the use of his airplane. The album won first place in the non-masters/non-event category, with a score of 89.

Somers said winning the award in a competition of this caliber has been a life-long dream of hers. “To receive even a small award, and to get first place is a huge honor.” Somers said the judges at first, weren’t sure what to think of her album, because they had never judged something similar. “They’re used to seeing weddings and high school senior albums. So the first time they came up they said I’m out of my element, I don’t know what to think.” She said they gave it a nice score, and then brought it back to re-score it, because they realized they had under-scored it and they fixed the score.”

First place for non-master, non-event, album titled Atlantic Sesquicentennial (photos courtesy Somers Photography/Kathy Somers)

Second place for non-master photojournalism print titled Winner.

For Somers, the album was a year-long project, because the Sesquicentennial went on all year. She says it was a time consuming project, but worthwhile because “I care about Atlantic and I think our town is a great place to be and I love to document that and share it with everyone who will look at my pictures.”

Kathy Somers began her professional photography career in 2016. Her most recent competition was her fourth to date.