I am absolutely humbled and honoured to announce that I was awarded second place in the portrait division of the world’s biggest professional print competition this past week!

Hosted by Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), the competition is called “The Annual 16×20”, attracts 3200+ entries from 30+ countries, annually.

Here’s how the evening went: it was our last night at WPPI in Vegas and we were considering our options for our entertainment for the evening. After hearing that everyone who’s anyone would be at the awards ceremony we decided that we should at least make an appearance and build some connections with the big name photographers who’d be taking awards home that evening.

After mingling in the reception for a little while the doors to the awards ceremony opened and the crowd began filing in. I suggested we all sit in the back row in case we wanted to duck out mid-way through. Well, the awards show was quite a bit more entertaining than we expected and it kept us in our seats.

Midway through the awards ceremony, not even realizing they were calling a category I had entered, I suddenly heard my name called! It took a minute for me to realize what was happening because I was so shocked! The whole audience was silent as they were waiting for me to stand up to accept the honour and applause.

I stood up (thankful that I’d dressed up at least a little!) and soaked in the moment that had caught me by complete surprise!

I had won second place in the “Portrait Division: Engagement” category!

What?! Even just typing that still feels unreal and it has been over a week since I found out.

Those who have competed know the honour that comes with even meriting (a score of 80 or higher). I had been thrilled when I scored a 90 but hadn’t taken time to realize there were only two of us who scored that high in the entire division.

For those interested, here is how the panel of judges score:
Exceptional 100-95
Superior 94-90
Excellent 89-85
Deserving of a Merit 84-80
Above Average 79-75
Average 74-70
Below Exhibition Standards 69-65

More on WPPI and their print competitions:

WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) is North America’s largest photography convention and attracts photographers from all around the world.

WPPI has three photography competitions throughout the year – the largest and most prestigious is called The Annual. It is a live print competition held in Las Vegas during WPPI.

There are printers around the world who specialize in printing for competition because even the paper and matting choices are taken into consideration when being judged, and those preferences change from competition to competition. Hiring a print artist who knows those subtle differences can make all the difference.

I’d like to extend a big thank you to Jonathan Penney for his printing expertise. The last thing I wanted was to hear a judge say they loved everything except the paper choice, or that it was printed too dark or too bright. He did not disappoint!

For those of you not in the photography industry, here’s a brief video you can watch to give you an idea of what goes on…