Local Photogapher Earns Prestigious Awards

Local photographer Cory Loomis attended the 2019 Professional Photographers of Nebraska (PPofN) Annual Conference in Grand Island on Feb. 16.

Loomis had an astounding show for his first appearance at the conference. One of his photos won the Lexjet Sunset Print Award for best print in exhibition.

There were 157 photos entered into the competition and one of Loomis’s four photos was chosen for the national award.

The name Sunset Print Award doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be a picture of a sunset. Loomis’s photo is a landscape photo, however.

“The photo is of the barn right outside of town, I think it belongs to Charlie Erbst,” he said.

Loomis has to remain humble about this award for now. He cannot post to social media or share which photo won if he plans to enter his photos in districts, which he fully intends to do. In fact, all of his photos scored great.

“I was fortunate to score well with my case of images,” he said.

The images scored so well that Loomis also won first place in the Non Master Category. This award is given to a photographer that has been in business for three years or less with the highest case score.

A case score is the average score between four images that the photographer enters. No specific number of photos needs to be entered, but photographers cannot get a case score without entering four photos.

Loomis’s four chosen photos scored 93 (superior), 86 (excellent), 82 (deserving of a merit) and a 78 (above average). These scores gave him the highest case score for a non master in the whole competition. 

Loomis was also awarded the Keith Howe Novice Photographer of the Year Award.

“I expected to do well, but I never expected to get the Keith Howe award,” Loomis said.

The award was previously known as the Virgil Pistick award and was renamed this year. Loomis was chosen out of approximately 30 photographers as the most impressive novice photographer by the judges.

Loomis had a monumental first year and plans to take the momentum into districts and possibly nationals. 

He plans to use three of the four photos from the PPofN conference in districts in April. There are five districts and Loomis will be competing in the North Central region. This district includes ten states and two canadian provinces spanning as far south as Kansas, as far east as Indiana and north into Manitoba.
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“I will definitely be competing every year from now on,” Loomis said.