Focus Portrait Awards

Carol Ann Neil

Carol Ann is an award winning baby, children and family portrait photographer based in Glasgow (Scotland) with over 10 years experience in studio and outdoor portraiture. For the past two years Carol Ann has travelled the world teaching fellow photographers her techniques to create low key, painterly style fine art portraiture. With a keen eye for detail, Carol Ann loves to combine her love of colours and textures to produce images that are both eye catching and memorable. Images that tell a story and prevoke emotion for the viewer

Carol Ann created FOCUS and the FPA as a way to make her teaching and ongoing learning available to all photographers. To create a community of individuals eager to learn

Evelina Skersyte

Evelina is an award winning family & children photographer based in London.

She loves to capture real life in its rawest form, unearthing the essence of what it means to be human. Her images express pure emotion and stories through her own eyes, portraying innocent, whimsical, romantic and nostalgic feelings

Evelina teaches her portraiture at workshops and during online mentoring sessions.

Sharon Wallis

Sharon is a leading photographer in her field of newborn and family photography of which she has won multiple awards. She produces her stunning imagery from her quaint barn conversion studio in the idylic Chesire countryside. With 18 years experience in the industry she knows her stuff!

Sharon teaches her newborn art to photographers all over England, she is a licenciate and associate member of the guild of photographers and this year gained her master craftsman qualification in newborn photography

FOCUS PORTRAIT AWARDS (FPA)

Each month awards will be given in the form of Bronze, Silver & Gold to those entries that meet the judging criteria. Judges will be looking for images that display good technical merit in terms of exposure, sharpness, lighting, composition, colour balance etc… they want to see images with visual impact and creativity that evoke emotion in the viewer

MATERNITY – Expecting mother, may include partner/family members

NEWBORN & BABY – For babies younger than 18 months

CHILDREN & TEENS – Children aged 16 years or younger. Sibling or group portraits may be included

FAMILY – At least 2 members of the same family, including at least one adult and one child

PEOPLE PORTRAIT – Studio or outdoor portrait. No age limits or creative restrictions**

OUTDOOR – Baby, child or family portrait taken

ANIMAL – Family pets or wildlife images are accepted

All components of your entered image must belong to you. For composite work each element must come from an image you have taken

How To Enter

You may submit ONE image per category

Please submit the following information in the message section BEFORE you upload your image

name_category_country_month_year

for example

joebloggs_portrait_denmark_may_2020

For optimal image quality and upload speed please submit your image in JPEG format no more than 1500 pixels on the longest side. Images should be no larger than 3mb. No copyright, logo or any other identifying marks should be visible.

Failure to do this will result in your image being rejected

** images portraying distaste or full nudity will not be accepted. Judges will make the final decision on what they deem to be unacceptable**

The closing date for entrants is midnight on the last day of the month and results will be announced on the 5th day of the following month.

If you have submitted and failed to achieve an award or have scored lower than you had hoped, you may request feedback TWICE per year. For further critique from the judges a fee of £20 for 3 images will be required, please email for more details on this carolannneilfocus@outlook.com

Payment For Entry

1 image £10

3 images £20

5 images £25

When you have submitted your entries to the FPA please then send your payment via PayPal to caneilphotography@outlook.com

Please note: Your entries will not be entered into the FPA until payment has been received

Entries for the FPA open January 4th 2021

The judges at the FPA would like to thank everyone for their participation in our monthly portrait awards! This first year of the FPA couldn’t have gone any better and it has been a pleasure to judge so many inspiring portraits each month! We are delighted to welcome entries from photographers around the world when we open again in 2021!

We wish you all a wonderful christmas and a happy new year! Here’s hoping 2021 is a much better one for all of us! Stay safe everyone and see you next year!