2020 Portrait Masters Awards
I’m so excited and pleased to share that two of my images received Bronze awards in the 2020 Portrait Masters Awards & Accreditation Program.
The Portrait Masters Program, explicitly for portrait photographers of all genres, is a recognition of ‘high professional standard” and awards merits towards accreditation.
Bronze Award images are judged to have a high professional standard of technique and communication.
I’m super humbled by this because some of the judges are Sue Bryce (one of the best known photographers in the world right now), Susan Stripling, Richard Wood, Michele Celentano, and more.
Image are judged on the following criteria:
expression and connection
styling
posing
composition
lighting
overall technique and presentation
focus
storytelling
I’ve previously received accreditation with the Professional Photographers of Canada, and also had several of my images place in the PPOC National Salon, but I’ve never entered the Portrait Master Program before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve learned that entering images to be critiqued and judged can be a very difficult and humbling experience. Photography is art, and it’s also very personal, so when a piece of your artwork is critiqued, it can be very hard to hear. I’ve been through this several times already, so I was honestly was afraid to enter this program because of the high caliber of the judges, and because photographers from all around the world can enter. So, I decided to just “test the waters” for my first time, and I only entered two images. Well, to my surprise, both images received a Bronze Award!
My first image was entered in the Creative Portrait Category for fine-art portraits that have a unique theme or style including fantasy & composite.
This is a portrait of my daughter Hannah playing her violin at Johnson Lake, in Banff National Park. Hannah is a piano and violin teacher and has her own business teaching music, so we had gone to the lake to take branding images for her website. It was a beautiful, warm summer evening and there were quite a few people at the lake, so we had to move around and take our photographs in a variety of locations around the lake, and we ended up being there for quite awhile. When the sun started going down the people started to leave, and we actually ended up being totally alone at the lake. It was kind of eeire and very quiet, and I started thinking about bears, so we decided to pack up too, but then I noticed the moon coming up, and the misty clouds, so I had Hannah stand where the last of the sun would light her face, and had her play her violin. It was so incredibly haunting and beautiful and I feel like this image really captures the mood of the evening.
I call this image “Consolation” inspired from the poem below.
“Moon and music were her only friends. On a lonely night, moon looked at her while music consoled her.” -Duheeta Joshi
When I was in high school I studied art and photography because I wanted to become a children’s book illustrator. Unfortunately, there were no graphic arts schools where I lived, so I never was able to go in that direction. I kept playing around with photography as a hobby though, and eventually ended up working in a portrait studio for a dear friend of mine, as a retoucher. I often assisted him on photo shoots, and wished that I could be a real photographer too, but I never felt that I was creative enough, or technically skilled enough to do what he did. I watched him enter PPOC competitions but never thought that I could achieve that level of skill. I eventually got married and took a very long break from photography while I raised and homeschooled my two children. It wasn’t until they were in high school, and I was 50 years old, that I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a real photographer. I studied online, and I studied everything from my favorite photographer Sue Bryce and eventually started my own portrait photography business. I then decided to be brave and enter those PPOC competitions that seemed so far out of reach for me. I ended up receiving my own PPOC accreditation and even had several of my images accepted into the PPOC National Salon in 2017. Now I’ve decided to work towards accreditation with the Portrait Masters, and this was my first step.
I’m reminiscing a bit here to show you where I came from, and to tell you that you are never too old, and it’s never too late to pursue your dreams. I’m also sharing this because the second image of mine that received a Bronze award is a portrait of my beautiful niece, Jessica.
This is one of Jessica’s high school graduation portraits. What’s really cool is that Jessica is an artist. She attended the very same high school that I did, and she won the Grade Twelve Art Award, which is the very same award that I won too. She is already winning awards for her gorgeous watercolor paintings and is currently attending the University of Saskatchewan for Fine Art. So, her portrait is very special to me because I am so glad she is pursuing her dreams at such a young age. Click here to view her artwork.
This portrait was entered in the Teen & Senior Portrait Category, and is called “Jessica”
I’m so happy that both of these images are of talented young women that aren’t afraid of pursuing their dreams. They are brave, and beautiful, and I’m so proud of both of them. If I can be an encouragement to anyone who reads this I would just like to tell you that no matter your age, young or old, please always, always follow your dreams!
Thank you to you for supporting and following me and if you ever would like to work with me please just get in touch.
