By Lisa Sciortino
Amber Damour is no stranger to Frisco STYLE Magazine’sbrannual Cover Photo Contest.<br
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In 2021, three of her original photos were among thosebrselected as contest finalists.
This year, Damour’s portrait-style photo, titled Poised,brclaimed the contest’s top prize and graces the cover of Frisco STYLE’sbrAugust issue.
The photo was among more than 200 submitted by amateur andbrprofessional photographers for the contest that was judged by members of the FriscobrSTYLE staff.
The visually striking portrait — awash in contrasting goldbrand blue hues — features a young girl donning an extravagant dress adorned withbrsilk flowers and long, wispy feathers while clutching a tall bouquet.
Damour says she was “surprised” to learn that her photo hadbrbeen selected as the winning entry. “I opened up my phone first thing in thebrmorning and I was like, `Oh, that’s awesome.’ I was thrilled.”
In designing and creating photos, “I like to play with colorbra lot. You can tell in that image that I’m using different colors and texturebrto bring out all sorts of vibrancy in it,” she explains. “The goldness in (thebrmodel’s) hair and skin tone and the backdrop, and then the vibrant blue (of thebrfeathers) —that was all just to play off of each other and be dramatic.”
Another of Damour’s photos, titled Summer Garden, wasbra chosen as finalist in this year’s Cover Photo Contest. It captures a young girlbr(who happens to be one of Damour’s three daughters) with her back turned towardbrthe camera, admiring a cloud-speckled sky while standing amid rows of dark,brleafy green vegetables.
Damour began her career as a professional photographer sixbryears ago after her husband purchased a camera for her following the birth ofbrthe couple’s first daughter. “It’s kind of a typical story for mombrphotographers,” she says, explaining that she soon began receiving positivebrcomments about the photos she was snapping.
When the job she had been working ended unexpectedly, “Ibrfound myself very quickly needing to do something” that would replace thebrfamily’s lost income. Damour — a resident of the Kaufmann, east of Dallas — decidedbrto turn her passion for photography into a career. “Within a couple of days, Ibrhad a website up and business cards made. … I’m very much a go-getter and justbrwent headfirst and digested every little thing I could find out aboutbrphotography.”
In the years that followed, she built a thriving business,brAmber Damour Photography, and opened a studio in downtown Dallas. She mentorsbrup-and-coming photographers and also teaches photography classes and workshopsbrthroughout the country, including for the Fort Worth Professional PhotographybrAssociation, among others.
Damour is a member of the Dallas Professional Photographer’sbrAssociation, Texas Professional Photographers Association (TPPA) and thebrProfessional Photographers Association of America. She has entered her works inbrnumerous national and international photography contests and earlier this yearbrwon several awards from the TPPA as well as a first-place trophy in the portraitbrcategory at WPPI, a prestigious, international wedding, portrait and printbrcompetition.
Lisa Sciortino is managing editor of Frisco STYLEbrMagazine.