I've been attending classes in photography at the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA for short) for a while, and am scheduled to finish with my Associates in Photography in December. It is really a fine program for a community college and I've had some great instructors, including a form National Geographic photo editor for 20 years, and a Chicago Tribune photojournalist, as well as the great instructors on staff at NOVA.

Each year they hold a juried student show, where active students can submit up to four framed pieces taken within the last twelve months. An outside judge comes and selects the pieces for the show, then also award the 'Jurors Award' to whichever they feel deserve it.

Last year I submitted four and one made the show. This year I submitted four and two made the show. It was the largest number of submissions they have ever had, with about 300 total photographs. 68 made it into the gallery. I did not win a Jurors Award, but feel honored just to make the cut into the main gallery with two pieces.

The judge was Chan Chao, a Burmese born photographer now residing in Washington DC who teaches at the Corcoran, Georgetown and George Mason Universities.

To the right is a very bad iPhone camera pic of my photos on the wall at the opening of the show last night. Both can be seen on my website.

The top image is from my personal series of images taken of my mother-in-law after her brain surgery at Johns Hopkins in December 2007, with Meghan walking beside her, on her way to physical therapy.

The lower image is from the Fairfax County Police Academy project I did in class last year (it barely made the time cut into the show, though they don't watch that too closely anyway).

These are two of my favorite images I have taken and to have them both selected feels great. The lower image also made it into a juried show in Denver, Colorado last year. There were over 4,000 submissions from four countries for that show.

The photo from Hopkins will hang in our home when it comes down. The police academy image I will be giving to a class mate of mine, Kelly, for her father who is a firing range instructor (and undercover officer) at the academy where the photo was taken. We met after I had completed the project.