When Cassandra Sullivan looked up at the vaulted ceiling of Siena Cathedral in Italy, painted with hundreds of tiny stars, she knew that she was looking at something extraordinary. 

Over a million tourists visit and photograph the cathedral each year, but Sullivan, owner of Cassandra’s Photography on Main Street, wants to capture all of her subjects from a different angle. 

“It’s not just a giant landscape,” she said. “There might be a little piece of it that I find interesting in the shape of it, and the way the light is hitting it.”

Sullivan’s photographs of the cathedral, and several other locations around the world, won her the Professional Photographers Association of Massachusetts’s Photographic Excellence Award.

This is the third time Sullivan has won the award in 10 years.

“It was exciting, humbling and something that everybody strives for,” she said.

Sullivan was also elected president of the Association, which holds seminars to teach aspiring photographers their craft, as well as business and marketing. 

“We are basically trying to forward people in their careers,” she said. 

Sullivan is “still working” on what she wants to achieve as president, but she is most interested in holding more in-person hands-on activities. 

She has noticed that, due to the pandemic, most photography events have gone virtual. 

Along with the photo of the cathedral, Sullivan also submitted a senior portrait of a high school student and photos from the Grand Canyon and Cape Cod National Seashore. 

“It showed the variety of things I love to photograph,” she said. “I love my clients, and I love to go on trips and photograph landscapes.”