Cassandra Jones' picture "Daddy, can we please make apple pie?" Photo Credit: Cassandra Jones

By Shane Clausing

Olympics of photography

Local photographer named top 10 finalist at World Photographic Cup in Rome

Jan 21, 2020 | 3:51 PM

Cassandra Jones of Grande Prairie had her picture selected as a top 10 finalist to represent Canada on the world stage at the World Photographic Cup in Rome, Italy this March.

The World Photographic Cup is essentially the Olympics of photography.

The best pictures from each country are submitted into a national competition. From there a panel of judges in each country will select the photos they want to represent their country at the awards. Each country enters its three best pictures from each category into the international draw.

The categories range from Commercial, Illustration and Digital Art, Nature (Landscape and Wildlife), Portrait, Reportage, and Photojournalism and Weddings. This year saw pictures from over 30 countries submitted. Jones’ picture is a finalist in the portrait section.

Once each country submits their choices, the pictures from across the world are dwindled down to the top 10 in each category.

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They’re chosen and judged by a panel at Imaging USA, in Nashville, Tennessee. The judges selecting the pictures are all distinguished photographers from around the world, who have been involved in photography for decades.

Jones’ picture is titled “daddy can we please make apple pie?” The picture features her son, who is sitting by the apple tree with a bucket of apples.

“This picture was just a really sweet and fun capture taken right here in Alberta. It represents how I grew up,” said Jones. “I grew up on a farm just outside of Hythe and we had tons of apple trees and we grew all kinds of fruits, flowers and things like that. I was just going back into my childhood and creating an image of my child that is very reminiscent of my how I grew up.”

The top ten finalists are then dwindled down and selected to attend the final award show in Rome.

“When I got the news, I cried a little bit, I was very excited and shocked to be honest. I didn’t think I’d make it that far. I put two images in thinking that they weren’t going anywhere. I didn’t even think I’d be selected to be in the finals let alone the top 10. It was just a fun thing that I wanted to see how they’d do. When I was selected to the finals, I didn’t think out of a whole world of images and countries that I’d make it into top 10. It was a huge surprise when it happened.”

Unfortunately, Jones said that she would be unable to attend the event in Rome.

In the finals, Jones is facing competition from Russia, the United States, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Poland.

Jones says that she is proud of the picture, because she feels that outdoor photographers are underrepresented in the competition.

“Outdoor photographers with the exception of Wedding photography, are underrepresented at the awards. It was pretty cool to have an outdoor image make it this far.”

Jones has only been a professional photographer for four years. She earned a master’s in clinical psychology, and never planned on being a photographer, but she says she loves it, and has a lot of fun doing it.

Jones also owns Noelle Mirabella Photography. More of her work can be found here.