Prepare yourself for a serious visual feast! We’ve just celebrated the Embark Awards, which means we can finally reveal all the well-deserved winners.

For the past six months, our Embark challengers have been pouring their time and creativity into twelve fortnightly challenges, and we’ve been completely blown away by the standard of entries. Their imagination, originality, and determination to not only meet each brief but also elevate their work to new heights has been nothing short of inspiring.

Alright, enough chatter – let’s jump straight into the individual challenge winners and let their incredible images do the talking!

01 Colouriffic

Winner: Emma Coulter | Rustie and Co.

02 Get Down

Winner: Courtney Bryson | CM Bryson Photography

03 Composition 101

Winner: Sam Rowe | Sam Coral Photography

04 Dogscapes

Winner: Samantha Smillie

05 Up Ups

Winner: Katie Pierce | @katiebatie13

06 Soul Searcher

Winner: Valerie Bavegems | @valerie_rusty_luka

07 City Slicker

Winner: Valerie Bavegems | @valerie_rusty_luka

08 Front Runner

Winner: Michelle Osborne | The Spotted Tongue Photography

09 Say What?

Winner: Caryn Glover | Katiepal Photography

10 Glow-Up

Winner: Jenny Johansson | Jenny Johansson Photography

11 Splash

Winner: Korina Joseph | Korina Joseph Photography

12 Party Time

Winner: Sam Rowe | Sam Coral Photography

Overall Winners

Now it's time for the big winners, selected for their full set of twelve challenge images.

In third place...  

🥉 Katie Pierce

Second place goes to:

🥈 Samantha Smillie

And our overall winner of Embark 2026 is... 🥁

🏆 Sam Rowe

WOW, what beautiful work. Congratulations to all our winners for Embark 2026! 🎉

Ready to take your dog photography to the next level?

Our Unleashed Challenges are so much more than a photo contest. This trilogy of hands-on courses will completely transform the way you shoot, helping you build an incredible portfolio and a go-to library of creative ideas you can use again and again. Whether you’re photographing your own dog for fun or running a professional business, you’ll learn, grow, and create images you’re genuinely proud of.

It all begins with Embark – the first challenge course in the series and the perfect way to supercharge your skills, stretch your creativity, and fall in love with photographing dogs all over again. Find out more here and join the adventure!