I don’t care if you’ve been a photographer for five minutes or five decades, there is NOTHING like the feeling of putting your work out there and having someone - be that your clients, your colleagues, or…you know…a panel of professional print judges with the keenest eye for photographic detail and creative artistry in the entire world - give you positive feedback.

Portrait Masters is an international accreditation program for portrait photographers around the world.

Accreditation occurs in several levels, from Associate to Master, to Grand Master, and can take years to achieve, and can only be achieved by submitting competition images, which are then scored - one image at a time - by multiple professional judges.

The criteria that go into your score are styling, composition, focus, lighting, connection, posing, post production and overall technique and presentation.

To even reach an Associate Level, requires 25 merit points, and even a near-perfect score of 80-89 (Silver) garners you only ONE point...hours and hours of work, shooting, scouting, editing, finishing, submitting...to hope you can get just ONE point. :D . Master is 50 points, and Grand Master is 75 points. That's a lotta friggin points, lemme tell ya!

Some images do not merit at all, and for them, it's back to the drawing board.

Given the caliber of work submitted, it is EXTREMELY competitive and even photographers who regularly merit, and even those with their Accreditation, some even with Masters, can have an image NOT merit.

I say all of this just to make the point that it's not a popularity contest, you can't pay for accreditation, and there is no way to hack the system with votes or likes or getting on an email list. Your image either scores well, or it does not. Simple as that.

This year, I targeted the Teens/Seniors category, since I had several really beautiful sessions that I loved personally, and wanted to see how they stacked up in judging.

I was so happy to see that out of the 3 images I submitted, 2 of them Merited Bronze!!!

Portrait of a young woman posing on the rock jetty at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West Florida, winning Bronze Merit in the Portrait Masters international accreditation competition.

This one shows a young teen I had the chance to work with when she visited Key West. We shot in studio and on location, but this one of her standing on the rocks of Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, with the sea breeze so delicately blowing just a few strands of hair horizontally, made me catch my breath when I saw it in post. It's simple, but I love it, so I had to submit it.

Then this image was from one of a series of photo shoots with this client, and the coloration of the shirt against the background, the incredible hair and makeup styling by Beauty Boutique & the Glam Squad, and the soul-piercing gaze that gives us instant connection with the subject through the camera, was again one of my personal favorites, so I’m so happy that it scored well.

I’m so excited to be able to add Bronze Merited Portrait Masters designation to my work, and I can't wait until next year's competition!