[Applause]
after three uplifting photographic
quests our assignment inspiration
finalists pitched us their photos
hoping to be the ones chosen to go on
assignment with national geographic
travel
we judges had an incredibly tough
decision to make each finalist has
different strengths
and now our photographers are looking
forward to their feedback i hope that
they can learn
something from me but i i know that from
other experiences like this that i end
up learning as much and being inspired
as much by them as they are by me
[Music]
it's just the culmination of that idea
that you don't have to be just one thing
you don't have to be just a doctor or
just a woman
or just a mom you can wear many hats and
you can
explore all of these different things
about yourself that you didn't know
could be just more than a hobby i wanted
to start by saying that
you have and your work has a very big
generous heart and it comes through in
all of the pictures
but when we separated and marked our
scores
your score was not the highest score for
you to go forward as a photographer
you do have more to learn but you had
easily the highest score in the uplifted
quest
these intimate amazing moments you know
really really powerful
thank you and that's because of who you
are what you have is
the most important part in time as you
master your craft that's going to open
doors
to telling other kinds of stories but
never walk away
from your heart you have a gift thank
you
i'm sorry i'm not i'm not actually sad i
didn't win it wasn't
i was not expecting to win but like what
is news to me is just what you said and
that's really
it really means a lot to me so thank you
but obviously i'm gonna have to keep my
day job so that i can support my
photography habits
i'm just really grateful for this entire
experience this has been fantastic
even though i didn't win the competition
you can't worry about the past
all you can do is think about the
present and the future and let's
go from there i always have a camera in
my hand and i'm gonna keep having a
camera in my hand
hi if i were to win i would call my
family first and tell them because
they're all kind of waiting to hear and
they're all so excited for me i don't
win
i'll probably text my family
we felt that you were such an
imaginative playful
creative photographer and that that was
really important to you and that you
really understood that that was your
voice
the way that you explore composition
that came through in all of the work
that you did oh wow thank you
the other photographers i've seen their
work online and i really have a lot of
respect for
what they've done and then the stakes of
winning or losing is pretty high
hey how you doing good good
i obviously really want to win so that's
another layer of nerves we were all
unanimously impressed with the
thoughtful way and deliberate way that
you
only described each of the quests but
how that comes through in all of your
photography
you have already the beginning of a
mastery over your camera
and i think these are some of your
greatest strengths one of your strengths
is how you use color and it kind of
reflects the vibrancy
of how you're seeing the world and at
the same time you lean on that strength
at some point you need to step back a
little bit if it's an editorial space
maybe those colors are a little bit too
vibrant
sure yeah we got to talk about some
weaknesses
too of course with your work it
sometimes feels a bit confined
what we'd love to see you do is take
some risks to sort of open up
show us something that only you could
have seen
you have a long road ahead and you have
so much potential
it was a really difficult decision for
us very little
light between each of you we were very
careful about how we
made our marks and our scores
that said we added up the scores and
[Music]
[Applause]
you were the winner
because of this we'd like to send you on
an assignment with national geographic
travel
i don't know what to say um
i'm shaking so yeah that means a lot
we're really excited to see what you do
yeah thank you so much
and we tallied all the scores and you
were a very very close second
among the three family yeah but
what we're really excited about is to
see where you go this isn't the end
more importantly your story is going to
be told yeah i hope it opens lots of new
doors and i'm just really grateful for
the whole experience so thank you
i like meeting all of you actually one
one thing um
we do want to continue working with you
masa does okay
we were just really moved by um your
pictures so
we want to partner with you and really
harness your creativity so i appreciate
it thank you thank you beth
well i definitely feel like a winner
just this whole experience has been so
incredible
getting out of bed each morning and
going on these quests
really made me feel like i was validated
like a legitimate photographer this is
just the beginning
so sam it's been quite the journey
but your journey's just beginning and we
want you to continue that journey
in a mazda cx-30
oh phenomenal thank you guys um yeah
i don't think i could it's too much just
come on
[Music]
thank you so much i don't think it's
like fully sunk in because it's like
ah it's a lot of different emotions for
sure
it's really validating i guess you know
some of the the choices i've made in the
past
of like leaving and going away for a
year and pursuing photography instead of
something else
um my parents they'll be the first
people to to know
when they bought me a camera um i don't
think they knew what
i was getting into or what they were
getting into when they first bought that
little point-and-shoot
yeah i'm just so so thankful for this
i really think i'm going to try and take
what i've gotten from this experience
and apply it going forward in my
photography and the work that i do
i love being on shoots this whole energy
that goes into it and
being on assignment is going to be
pretty amazing
i just loved every bit of it