It seems like only yesterday that we began the first Empower course, our third and final Unleashed Challenge series.

With the students having already completed Embark and Emerge, we knew Empower was going to be good, and that we had to push our students out of their comfort zone. So along with our usual instructional videos and challenge briefs, we enlisted the help of five fabulous guest instructors to add challenges to the course. Alicja Zmyslowska, Amy Godfrey Johnson, An Di Prima and Natalia Martinez and Bill Parsons from The Labs & Co.

We weren't wrong, the work submitted was exceptional and inspiring. Today we celebrate all those who completed Empower and the Empower winners.

Let's take a look at the winning images, up first, all the individual challenge winners...

01 Along the Lines

Winner: Jeff Rooney | Hightail It Photography

02 On the Side

Winner: Christel Wellens | Fotografie Christel Wellens

03 Connections

Winner: Lisbeth Ganer | LisGanerArt

04 Sports Star

Winner: Christel Wellens | Fotografie Christel Wellens

05 Monolicious

Winner: Kim Hawkins

06 In Depth

Winner: Chantal Levesque | Chantal Levesque Photo

07 Light It Up

Winner: Magda Szklarska | Your Best Furiend Photography

08 Multi Mania

Winner: Lindsay Baca | Lindsay Baca Photography

09 Dogumentary

Winner: Rebecca Williams | Rebecca Williams Photographer

10 Product Placement

Winner: Magda Szklarska | Your Best Furiend Photography

11 Embrace the Night

Winner: Nancy Paynter 

12 Jump!

Winner: Jana Davis | J's Photography

13 Anything Goes

Winner: Nancy Paynter

We're sure you'll agree the winning images are all absolutely incredible.

Now it's time for the big winners, selected for their full set of 13 challenge images.

In 3rd place... Nancy Paynter

Second place goes to Rebecca Williams.

And our overall winner of Empower is... 🥁

Chantal Levesque!

WOW, what beautiful work. Congratulations to all our winners. 

Do you want to join us for an Unleashed Challenge?

To find out more head over to the info page.

Each of the three courses are interactive dog photography challenge based education. The courses run for six months, Embark and Emerge include 12 challenges - a new one every two weeks. Plus, only in Empower, a bonus 13th challenge!

Much more than just a challenge, they are an invaluable educational resource that will help you build up a go-to list of shots to help create variety in your work. Designed for anyone to be able to complete whether you just want to photograph your own dog or you are a professional pet photographer.