Portrait Masters Entries January 2023

There is so much I like about entering the Portrait Masters Awards but at the forefront of my appreciation is that it is not a popularity contest. Each photograph is judged by masters of photography, entrants don’t need to reach out to their friends/family/followers for votes. Knowing that this is a worldwide awards program with the photographs being scored by experts the pictures cannot just be beautiful, they need to jump off the screen with a unique quality of the subject, connection, story, composition, and editing. I like/love all of the pictures I get to make so this is a bit like choosing favourite children. After scanning through pictures made last year I’ve chosen these three pictures (so far) for the judges to consider. 

Wedding Portrait Category - the connection between the Bride and her father before she entered the church is really sweet…and, because I was using a 14mm lens, I was able to capture the look back of the guy in the car that was passing by, it creates a dynamic image that is filled with details to look at. 

Contemporary Portrait Category - Johnny Vegas came to the studio for pictures last winter and was relaxed enough to perform-pose-connect at the moment while I snapped away. Johhny and I talked about it yesterday and he thought he looked like a stand-up comedian (Rodney Dangerfield-esque) and I see that combined with the showman expressiveness that he brings to all of his performances. 

Documentary Portrait Category - “Santa in his downtime” Santa and I traveled to a Stittsville park in early November looking to make promotional videos and portraits and, while this seems to be inspired (a little bit) by a famous meme, it was a moment where I had Santa look at the camera with a serious face. Is Santa lonely? maybe he’s exhausted after delivering gifts? With a lot of potential interpretations, I couldn’t see this being used to promote him, but from the pose, location, composition, and connection it has an interesting story that can go in a lot of directions.