Long Beach photographer in running for international award

Photographer Christina Tisi-Kramer has a chance to win more than $5,000 in photography-related prizes, and she needs the help of Long Islanders to capture them.

Tisi-Kramer, a photography professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and a freelance photographer, is currently in third place in online voting for a Worldwide Photo Walk “People’s Choice Award.” Tisi-Kramer, who participated in the Oct. 5 Long Beach Photo Walk, one of 1,238 photo walks that day, shot a photo a girl posing on the Long Beach boardwalk with a sunset backdrop.

“Her flexibility was insane,” said Tisi-Kramer, 42, of Long Beach. “I captured her beautiful form with the sunset behind her. I saw something beautiful and waited for something great to happen.”

Tisi-Kramer was chosen as a candidate for the award among 60 photographers who participated in the Long Beach Photo Walk by walk leader Ilene Schuss. Each photographer set out to capture the area’s beauty and state of recovery from superstorm Sandy.

Tisi-Kramer, whose first floor was submerged in 3 feet of water from Sandy, documented the damage in her neighborhood, later creating a video compilation of the photos she took before, during and after Sandy, called “Our Time With Hurricane Sandy.”

“When I went to go shoot I knew exactly where I wanted to go,” she said of the photo walk. “The boardwalk. It means so much to my family that we were devastated when it was damaged. If my photo was selected I wanted the boardwalk to be a part of it. It’s so iconic that it’s nice to shine some light on the progress we’re making here.”

As of 11 a.m. today, Tisi-Kramer’s photo had just over 1,700 votes, behind one taken in Philadelphia and another taken in Patra, Greece.

To vote for Tisi-Kramer, head to http://worldwidephotowalk.com/peoples-choice/page/8/ and click on the fifth star by her photo.

Voting ends tomorrow at noon.