Meet Melissa Thompson, ThereSanDiego.com’s ‘Photo Of The Year’ Winner As Voted By Our Fans!

Congratulations to Melissa Thompson, the winner of the ThereSanDiego.com Instagram Picture of the Year photo contest.

Her picture was one of our top ten most liked images of the year, and won a fan voting contest held in December over the other top ten pictures for Picture of the Year.

We’re thrilled to be able to bring some attention to her work as a photographer!

About Melissa

Melissa’s been living in San Diego since she came out here from New York to attend San Diego State University. And of course, she fell in love with San Diego–like we all do–and never left.

She’s been married 18 years and has two teenagers–which of course keep her very busy, but not quite as busy as they used to keep her when they were younger, which is why she’s been able to dedicate time to photography again.

Back In Touch With Her Passion For Photography

Photography was one of her early passions, but she left it behind for a while due to the hustle and bustle of being a parent and working full time.

Her husband got her a new camera last year–a Nikon D 3400–which was the spark she needed to get her going again as a photographer (nice work husband!). Since then she’s been shooting away all over San Diego, usually with her good friend Dana (@Milin9), another very popular photographer on ThereSanDiego’s Instagram feed.

Her Unfair Advantage

Melissa has an unfair advantage over other photographers in San Diego! She lives in Clairemont and has a backyard overlooking the canyon, which gives her a perfect view to tell ahead of time if a sunset is going to be a good one. If so, she can quickly hop in the car and get to some of her favorite locations for good shots.

Her favorite three spots in San Diego to do shoots are Sunset Cliffs, Windansea Beach, and Coronado–which are three locations that are pretty tough to beat. Her dream shot is to make a trip to Lower Antelope Canyon in Arizona to capture the natural beauty of that area.