Katie Swatek was named Photographer of the Year at the SYNC conference on March 4th held in Destin, Florida. SYNC is the High School Senior and Youth Sports National Conference. This conference is tailored particularly to portrait professionals, creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. It is known for its educational programs that focus on high school seniors, youth sports, business, sales and marketing. The number of photographers that attend this conference annually is 500 and this year’s photographers spanned the globe and were from the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, South America and Puerto Rico. For the 2025 image competitions, there were 126 photographers that entered the competition with 1074 submitted images.

The SYNC conference first began in 2009. What is unique about the SYNC image competition is that a photographer can submit as many images as they want to into whatever categories that they choose. There are no image cases or limitations on the number of submissions. In addition to the competitions that the SYNC conference offers, they also offer a multitude of classes for both portrait and volume photographers. The conference has three categories of classes including a “Green Stage” (all-conference), “Orange Stage” (geared toward portrait and senior photography) and a “Blue Stage” (focuses on volume and sports photography). Beyond the classes the conference is a great networking resource. Being surrounded by like-minded individuals helps fill Katie’s creative cup. It is a great feeling to learn and experience the feeling of belonging. As photographers often work alone and do not have employees, this conference allows people to feel connected. This is Katie’s favorite part of the conference, being able to connect with fellow photographers from across the world. It also allows her to catch up with her South Dakota photographer friends as well since they do not see each other as often as they would like.

Classes that Katie attended were put on by world-renown photographers and motivational speakers including Doug Brown, Alison Carlino, Michael and Melia Winslett, Brandy Moton, Cris Duncan, Sarah Lindsay, James Quantz Jr., Matt Hoaglin and Amber Henry. The theme of the conference changes every year and this year’s theme being “Find Your People.”

Three of Katie’s images made it into the Top 20 and two of those same images placed in the Top 10. She earned many other accolades in the competition part of the conference. They included 31 images that received awards of excellence; three judges choice awards; 3rd place Outdoor Senior category; and 3rd place Individual Athlete. The pictures that were printed in the Top 10 and Top 20 Gallery included the picture of Adysen Pravecek of Winner where she is wearing a long gown posed standing in the water at South Shore. That picture also won Katie 3rd place in the Senior Outdoor category. Another stunning picture of Adysen featured a profile picture of her leaning in a doorway with the light illuminating her face. This photo won Katie Judges Choice. The final one of Katie’s placing photos is of Treytan Bult of Scotland which won her 3rd place Senior Athlete and placed in the Top 20. The picture has Treytan sitting on the middle chair of five chairs in the dark with selective highlight lighting on the basketball court in his uniform.

The culmination of the conference for Katie was when she was announced as SYNC Photographer of the Year during the SYNC Awards and Party Like A Rock Star. Katie has also just recently announced that she will be an Orange Stage for the 2026 SYNC Conference, which is quite an honor in itself !

Katie’s senior sessions will begin in May and continue until the weather is too cold or it is not pretty outside to shoot. For Katie, there is no such thing as favorite senior pictures or sessions for Katie. It is always her goal to try to make the client’s session a memorable experience and something that will be a memory that lasts a lifetime for that senior. This senior season, there were two very memorable moments for Katie. The first would be for the senior image where she put a ton of rubber ducks in the water as a play on “duck hunting” which was one of the senior’s passions and when Katie explored the Ethan Fire Department with one of her seniors whose family legacy is firefighting.

In the past five years, Katie feels that her photography lighting skills have grown significantly. She has begun utilizing more lighting in each of her sessions, in different forms trying to make the client’s visions come to life. Katie is also trying to enhance her use of color, whether it be the natural color of the sunset or the use of gels in a gym setting. There is no particular technique that Katie will be trying to use in the upcoming season; she will continue to try to provide the best experiences and memorable sessions for her clients. Living within miles of the River provides Katie with some beautiful and scenic shooting locations, making anywhere near the river her favorite shooting background.

Congratulations Katie on your well-deserved honor! We cannot wait to see what amazing images you will capture next.