Award banquets are thrilling, nerve-racking affairs. Especially when you’re a finalist at the Professional Photographers of Canada Image Salon. And this time, more honours were coming than I even knew about.
I felt that same electric feeling back in 1986 when I won my first Figure Study award. It was my first awards night and my first image entry. Completely unexpected.
This time felt just as exciting. It always does.
This time, I already knew I was a finalist.
The image judging had taken place weeks earlier. I entered four images into the national competition. At this professional level, more than half of all submitted images fail to achieve acceptance.
One of mine — the woman in flames — did not make it through.
But the other three did.
Only about 8% of photographers receive three or more accepted images this national competition.
Two images — my Grizzly portrait and a high-key nude study — were accepted.
Then *Strong Love* — my crafted black-and-white body sculpture of a couple — earned a Merit award. Five judges considered it worthy of Excellence, but one judge felt the foot was slightly too bright.
That single concern changed the final score to Merit, still exciting. Less than 5% of accepted images will earn a Merit level.
Sherry and Brandon, a deeply connected athletic couple, posed for the image during a boudoir and fine art portrait session. We created many strong photographs that day, but this one immediately stood apart.
As they refined their pose, I refined the lighting. Tiny adjustments. Small movements. Gradually increasing the emotional power of the image until everything aligned.
Then I spent hours shaping the final photograph in post-production — dodging and burning, refining the black-and-white tonality, pixel-peeping every corner until the image finally felt complete.
I lost track of how much time I worked on it.
By the end of judging, I knew it had achieved Merit level. The scoring moves from Unaccepted to Accepted to Merit to Excellence.
A week later came the announcement:
“Strong Love” had become a Finalist.
Several more weeks passed before the PPOC 2026 Image Salon Awards banquet arrived. The Trophy winners are announced at the banquet.
Then came the moment.
Drum roll…
“Strong Love” won the Figure Study Trophy — Best in Class in Canada.
For a Calgary boudoir and fine art photographer who has spent over four decades photographing the strength, sensuality, and emotional transformation of women and couples, it was an incredibly meaningful moment.
But the surprises were not over.
At the end of the evening, the PPOC Loan Collection selections were unveiled. This is considered one of the highest honours in Canadian professional photography. Selected images become part of a permanent collection, appear in a published annual book, and travel across Canada as part of a national photographic exhibition.
That honour nearly overshadowed the other two awards I received that night.
The first was the presentation of my 15th Master Photographer Bar.
Back in the 1980s, I earned my Master of Photographic Arts designation through PPOC. The equivalent of a professional photographic degree, something that can take years of focused work to achieve. I took 4 years.
Each additional bar is essentially like earning that degree all over again.
Fifteen times over 44 years.
I keep pushing myself creatively and technically to stay current and fresh. This intent prevented me from ever becoming complacent or simply relying on past accomplishments.
Then came the final surprise of the evening.
The Professional Photographers of Canada National Citation for Service Award.
This is not an award you apply for or work toward directly. Someone must nominate you. Each PPOC region across Canada submits only a handful of names, each accompanied by detailed reasons why its candidate deserves the honour.
This award is entirely about service to PPOC and to the photographic community.
I appreciate that this blog risks sounding like I am blowing my own horn; I am, and I thank you for indulging me.
Over the years, I had already earned nearly every major honour our national association offers, including the Fellowship designation, held by only a small number of photographers, the Yousuf Karsh Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Canadian Portrait Photographer of the Year title. The Service of Photographic Arts: This award reflects my volunteer work to improve and engage the photographic community. Of course, the Master of Photographic Arts (MPA) with the 15 bars, now working on my 16th.
There are 45 Accreditation awards. With these, a photographer submits 10 images in a category such as Animal, Boudoir, Figure Study, Macro, etc. There is over 80. Each set of images needs 10 different subjects, locations, lighting, and moods.
Then there are the awards outside of the PPOC. I have 4 International Photographer of the Year Awards. Another Fellowship with the SWPP. Of course, my pride is the Professional Photographers of America’s Master Photographer and Master Craftsman degrees.
There is a whole bunch of trophies and other such stuff.
But this Citation Award is different.
It is about service, supporting and sharing my knowledge and time.
It recognized not only my photography itself, but decades spent helping shape the photographic profession in Canada — mentoring, teaching, judging, volunteering, and helping other photographers grow.
When the award was presented, this was shared:
“The National Citation for Service is one of the most meaningful honours PPOC can bestow — not because of what it says about someone’s photography, but because of what it says about who they are as a person.
As we all know, this association would be nothing without the dedication of its volunteers. This award exists to recognize those individuals who give back to this association and this profession.
Tonight’s recipient has been part of this community since 1982. While the industry transformed around him, while technology reinvented photography more than once, he kept showing up.
He served on the Federal Council and helped shape PPOC in its early years. He worked on the National Convention in 2011 and 2012 and stepped into the Accreditation Director role in 2013.
Over a lifetime of involvement, he has accumulated 6,917 service merits — representing years of saying yes when the association needed someone.
PPOC is shaped by photographers like this, and tonight we celebrate this year’s National Citation for Service recipient… Mark Laurie.”
Hearing those words was deeply moving.
After 46 years as a professional photographer, there is joy that I am still creating, still evolving, still current, and still being recognized by my peers means more to me than I can easily express.
Photography has given me an extraordinary life.
And excitedly, the journey still continues.