Every year, Florida Professional Photographers hosts FOCUS, the state's biggest gathering of working photographers. This year I walked away with more than I expected, and I wanted to write something longer than a Facebook post to actually talk about what it was, what happened, and why it matters to the couples and clients I work with here in Central Florida.
What is FPP FOCUS?
FOCUS is the annual convention put on by Florida Professional Photographers (FPP), a nonprofit association for working photographers across the state. It's part education conference, part trade show, and part image competition. During image competition, photographers submit their best work to be judged by a panel of accredited jurors. At the end of FOCUS, there is an awards banquet recognizing standout work and service. There is also a General Business Meeting, where the board sits before all the members and listens to questions and concerns people may have about the direction the organization is taking, and works through ways to make it better going forward.
This year was only my second FOCUS as a three-year FPP member, but I didn't just attend. I served as a co-manager of the event itself: helping set up the banquet, making banquet name tags, helping with registration, setting up and tearing down lights and backgrounds, staffing the PPCF photo booth, and helping track down models for the evening photowalk. It's a lot of behind-the-scenes work that most attendees never see, and it gave me a completely different appreciation for what goes into a convention like this.
What is image competition in professional photography?
Image competition is a formal judging process where photographers submit prints or digital images to be scored against standardized criteria by accredited judges, with scores from 100 down to 0 landing in bands from Exceptional to Unacceptable. At FPP, entries are judged against what's called the 12 Elements of a Merit Image: things like impact, technical excellence, creativity, composition, color balance, lighting, and storytelling. It's not a popularity contest. It's a peer-reviewed, technical evaluation of craft.
FPP splits competition into two tracks. Photographic Open is judged on technical and artistic proficiency in the image as captured, and builds toward the Florida Degree of Photographic Excellence. Artistic Open is judged on digital manipulation and compositing skill, and builds toward the Florida Degree of Artistic Excellence. Within Photographic Open there are categories for portraits, landscapes, commercial work, and social events, which is where my Social Event Open and Social Event Formal Portraiture entries competed. Social event categories specifically require the images to have been captured on the actual event day, so a wedding's ceremony, reception, and candid moments count, but a separate styled shoot or engagement session does not.
What awards did Koontz Photography win at FPP FOCUS 2026?
- Five blue Image Excellence ribbons
- First place, Social Event Open
- First place, Social Event Formal Portrait
- Best of Show in Social Event
- Top Ten Photographer
- Outstanding Service Award
Placing 7th in the Top Ten Photographers for FPP overall, genuinely surprised me, especially since I'm working in such a niche category. I was also not expecting it when my local guild, PPCF, gave me the Outstanding Service Award, recognizing volunteer contributions to the organization. To say my heart is full is an understatement.
What do FPP service awards actually recognize?
FPP service awards recognize members who give real time to the organization behind the scenes: chairing committees, mentoring quietly, showing up year after year. They're not tied to image scores or business success. FPP has given these out for decades, some dating back to the 1950s, and several are even named for past leaders who embodied that same spirit before passing it forward.
That's the tradition my Outstanding Service Award sits inside. It's not a juried image score. It's peer recognition for showing up: setting up banquets, running registration, building photo booths, and doing the unglamorous work that makes an event like FOCUS possible for everyone else. Getting it alongside a strong competition year felt like two very different kinds of validation landing in the same weekend.
Why does industry recognition matter for choosing a wedding photographer?
Industry recognition matters because image competition is one of the only objective checks on a photographer's skill, scored by accredited judges against a technical standard rather than personal taste or Instagram likes. Awards aren't the reason to hire anyone, and I'd never want a couple to choose me because of a ribbon. But when a photographer's social event work holds up under that kind of scrutiny, it says something real about consistency and craft, not just whether a photo looks good for a day.
That distinction matters more in wedding photography than people realize. A studio photographer can spend hours crafting one perfect image, adjusting light, posing, background, all of it, until it's exactly right. A wedding day doesn't offer that. I'm working within the timeline everyone else is working within too, the other vendors, the schedule, the people actually living that day. There's no redo. Scoring well in a category built around real social events means the work holds up even without the control a studio gives you, and that's a different skill than most people give it credit for.
I've never chased ribbons for their own sake. What this weekend meant to me was seeing that same connection I try to create with couples hold up in a room full of people whose entire job is looking at photographs critically. That's a comfortable feeling to sit with.
What are the benefits of joining FPP as a photographer?
If you're a Florida photographer wondering whether membership is worth it, here's what you actually get:
- FOCUS convention access at a discount, three days of speakers, image competition, an awards banquet, and the kind of fellowship you can't get from watching tutorials alone. Plus access to one day of pre-con!
- The Florida School of Photography, held each fall, with 4 days of hands-on instruction from a nationally known instructor of your choice, plus a member discount.
- Discounted educational seminars Featuring working industry professionals
- Image competition Since you can enter and watch salon and hear judges critique entries live, you receive an educational element that teaches you more about how images are judged based on the 12 elements
- A degree and merit system, including the Florida Service Award, the Florida Education Degree, and the Florida Degree of Photographic Excellence and Artistic Excellence, all of which are credentials you can point to with clients
For me, the community has mattered more than any single credential. You don't have to already feel like a "professional enough" photographer to join. This year we had an aspiring photographer as young as 13 join us!
What's next?
I'm currently working toward the FPP Florida Degree of Photographic Excellence, as well as my Master of Wedding Photography at the PPA level, alongside continuing to serve on the boards of both PPCF and FPP. FOCUS reminded me how much I get out of being part of this community, both as a competitor and as someone helping run the thing from the inside. I'm not here to be the best; I'm here to help, and somewhere along the way that helps me become a better person as well as a better photographer.
If you're a couple in Central Florida looking for a wedding photographer who takes the craft seriously, or another photographer curious about FPP or PPCF membership or image competition, I'm always happy to talk about either.
Photos in this blog were taken by FOCUS photographers
