William Morton of Morton Visuals photography in San Diego was selected as a judge in the 2011 SkillsUSA California State Conference in San Diego yesterday. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. SkillsUSA’s mission is to help its members become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens.
In the photography category, contestants demonstrate their ability to use digital SLR’s, image editing software (Adobe Photoshop) and professional studio lighting. Students perform on-site photography, portrait studio lighting & posing, process and print digital photos and submit two 11×14 or 16×20 mounted & matted photographs in advance of the contest to be judged and displayed at the competition. Contestants are evaluated on their mastery of entry-level job skills. William, along with Professional Photographers of California (PPC) Executive Director Roger Daines, PPC President Phillip E. Abel (Regional Manager with the MAC Group), and (the late) Lorenzo Gunn of Burrell Color Imaging, interviewed 22 finalists from all over California in order to select two student photographers to go on to the national competition in Kansas City this June. This challenging process took approximately 5 hours, with the entire judging panel agreeing on the photographers that were the best choices to represent California this June.
SkillsUSA serves more than 331,000 students and instructors annually. This includes 19,019 instructors who join as professional members. Including alumni, SkillsUSA membership totals over 393,000. SkillsUSA has served nearly 14 million annual members cumulatively since 1965 and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor as a successful model of employer-driven workforce development.
