Awards & Accreditation Preparation

ENTER HERE: theportraitmasters.com/awards
Entries close October 14th.

Portrait Master — It is what we strive for. To display the logo and certification knowing you’ve done the work. I earned my masters in 2000 with the NZIPP New Zealand institute of professional photography. I then earned my masters in 2010 with the AIPP the Australian Institute of professional photography.

Here, WPPI print awards is huge. They host this print judging in person at WPPI in Vegas annually.

PPA also have an accreditation program, so let’s talk about why I am doing this.

As I enter my 10th year of education, I want an accreditation program explicitly for portrait photographers of all genres. I specifically want the accreditation to be a recognition of ‘high professional standard’, not something that awards merit only.

I have a friend who is an incredible portrait photographer and businessman, but he lacked any illustrative and composite quality to his work so he was never able to achieve a gold merit at the awards. This meant he could never reach the level beyond master, and yet his standard of business practice and work was far superior to many photographers that had an illustrative and awards look. Hence the reason so many people call these awards ‘Photoshop Awards’, even when they introduced traditional categories back in.

I want to accredit professional standard, good high-quality, professional work. Not necessarily illustrative award winning work only, like most of the awards. I want you to earn this badge with pride display the logo on your website.

For someone like me who did not receive a formal tertiary education achieving these levels and standards were amongst the proudest moments of being a professional photographer in business.

I not only felt validated as a professional I felt proud and accomplished, I hope you work towards feeling the same.

The genres will be judged by some of the best portrait photographers in the world and each category has a head judge that specializes in that category. Every image will be judged by five judges and an average score of all five judges will be the final score of your image.

Join me to talk about categories, rules and why and how.