Instructor of English Sammani Perera wins her second Sony grant for pictures | At present at Elon

Sammani Perera, teacher of English, received her second Sony Electronics’ Alpha Female Plus grant for her {photograph}, “They Sing You to Sleep.” The grant program is a weekly themed pictures and videography contest hosted by The Alpha Female+ Community, a subsidiary of Sony Electronics.

“They Sing You to Sleep” captures the Milky Way over her tent on the highest of Hunts Mesa of Monument Valley. Describing the picture, she wrote, “23 days on the road—more than 5000 miles across 14 states—and this is my favorite night of all. Not only because it didn’t feel real to finally see Monument Valley from the top of
Hunts Mesa, but also because the magic of this place kept me from failing at another Milky Way shoot. In the Southwest, nights are enchanted.”

The picture received the grant below the theme of “Summer Vibes,” judged for relevance to theme, creativity/storytelling throughout the picture/video, technical mastery of the picture/video, and picture/video caption/written story. She received the identical grant in 2025 for her picture “Swish of a Magic Wand” below the theme of “Golden Hour” and this picture made her the winner of the panorama class on the 2026 Sony Alpha Female+ Creator of the Year program.

While Perera teaches within the Department of English through the semester, she is a Fine Arts journey and panorama photographer throughout college breaks. Her pictures focuses on public lands of the USA, a journey that the Olympic National Park in Washington began for her in 2017. Her images have been featured by the Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon Conservancy, Arizona
Highways, Visit West Virginia and PhotoPills.