Sunset Delight Photograph

Maria Jeffs is an award-winning photographer and artist based in southern Utah who loves the landscapes, birds, and wildlife of the desert southwest. Her vibrant photographs bring awe and wonder to those who love nature. Am article featuring her artwork was recently published in the Spectrum of St George, Utah. Read it here: http://www.thespectrum.com/story/life/2017/03/03/photographer-maria-jeffs-embraces-cultural-authenticity/98694326/ Her photographs have been published in Arizona Wildlife Views magazine, Grit magazine, and many other publications & books. She is a natural born artist, and enjoyed art classes throughout her childhood, winning multiple awards in elementary school and high school competitions. She studied coloring pencil, pen & ink, charcoal drawing, and some watercolor in high school art classes. Maria was given her first camera in 2003 and it was love at first sight. In 2004 she joined several microstock websites, including iStockPhoto.com and Shutterstock.com and began a challenging journey in stock photography. Through painful critique and rejection of her photos by stock inspectors she eventually learned the fine-tuned art of perfect exposure, focus, sharpness, color, lighting, and composition. Since 2004, she has sold over 10,000 stock downloads. Although she has no formal training in photography, she has studied hundreds of books on the topics of photography, wildlife, birdwatching, and the southwest. "I don't consider myself self-taught," she says. "I've had the greatest photographers as my instructors." Her work combines techniques learned from world-class photographers such as John Shaw, Ansel Adams, Joe McNally, Joel Sartore, Brian Peterson, Leonard Lee Rue, Rohn Eng, Tim Fitzharris, Moose Peterson, George Lepp, Trey Ratcliff, Jim Zuckerman, and John Kaplan, and many others. In 2014 she opened her own small business, ZiAura Southwest Photography, and began selling her art locally as prints, handcrafted puzzles, calendars, etc. She displays her work to thousands of people each year at art shows and festivals in southern Utah. Her art has traveled across the US from Alaska to Florida, and around the world to Great Britain, Norway, Switzerland, and Japan, spreading the inspirational beauty of southern Utah around the globe.