Every year, members ask us some version of the same questions. Is FOCUS worth it? Do I belong there? What do you even do at a photography convention?
So this year, instead of a recap, PPCF is answering the questions.
What is FPP FOCUS?
FOCUS is the annual convention of the Florida Professional Photographers, the Florida state affiliate of Professional Photographers of America, serving Florida’s photographic community for more than 90 years. It is three days of education, a trade show, the state image competition, and an awards banquet, all under one roof.
It is open to everyone. Hobbyist, part-timer, twenty-year veteran, it does not matter. You do not have to be an FPP member to attend, and you do not have to arrive knowing anyone.
When and where was FOCUS 2026 held?
July 24 to 26, 2026, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando North in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Registration in 2026 was $175 for FPP members and $225 for non-members, which is a real bargain for three days of education from working professionals.
Who taught at FOCUS 2026?
Seven educators across three days (four if you came to pre-con)
- Joe Baker, Fitness Lighting: Mastering Shadows and Highlights, the pre-con session, open to FOCUS attendees and non-attendees alike
- Joan Walker, Sit. Stay. Slay the Shot. on pet photography
- Sharon Benton, The Power of Emotion. The Evolution of the Art: Lessons from Santa’s Enchanted Workshop
- Rich Johnson, Permission Granted: The Freedom to Fail, Experiment, and Create with Intention
- Kevin Boller, From Concept to Client: The Commercial Photography Journey
- Emily Rochotte, Future-Proof Your Business: How to Effectively Sell to Gen Z
- Andrea Calvery, Authenticity, Art & the Discipline to Create
As a bonus, attendees were treated to a Lunch and Learn with Angela Kurkian, PPA’s CEO.
Saturday captured the range best. As Jennifer of JJ Photo Gallery put it: “The day began with Santa and ended with strobes, beautiful models, and the creative magic of playing with light.”
Who comes to FOCUS?
Everybody, and the range is wider than you would guess.
This year the room held Rowen, who is thirteen and attending her very first FOCUS. Rich Johnson noticed that nearly every frame she took was followed by a joyful squeal, and he said she reminded him to keep searching for that feeling in his own work. The same room held Robin Phillips, attending his 50th FOCUS. If you are doing the math on whether you are too new or too far along, the room has already made space for you.
What does PPCF do at FOCUS?
We show up and we work. A fair number of our members also serve on the FPP board, so much of the work behind FOCUS is done by people you already know from guild nights. The box registration group photo setup came back this year, where every attendee is photographed inside a prop box at check-in, and Jenny Eggers photographed and compiled those frames into a collage print handed out at the banquet, so everyone left with proof they were in attendance. Beyond the box, the work looked like registration, setting up and tearing down lighting and backgrounds for the shooting bays, coordinating models, running the photo booth (Huge shout out to Keith Pottinger), bringing banners and backgrounds (thank you Ed Medici), and putting the banquet room together. Several of our members served in convention management roles, which mostly means spending five days looking for scissors or tape.
Here is the part that surprised us. Serving together at the guild level makes the state level work go smoothly. When you have already worked together locally, you are not figuring out how to work together in a hotel ballroom at eight in the morning. The local relationships do the heavy lifting long before anyone reaches convention.
We mention it because volunteering is the fastest shortcut to belonging any of us have found. Rich Johnson, PPCF’s president and a director on the FPP board, described the shift well. When he first joined PPA, he looked at it almost entirely through the lens of what it could do for him. The benefits only became obvious once he stopped asking what the organization could do for him and started asking what he could do for it. He called it finding the Rosetta Stone.
You do not have to be the most talented photographer in the room to be useful. As Daniella put it after receiving the Outstanding Service Award, “I might not always know what I’m doing, but I’m always willing to help.”
What is a photo walk?
Normally it is exactly what it sounds like. A group of photographers and models head outside together and shoot. Last year we walked out into the dark with an LED wand and painted light into long exposures.
This year Rich Johnson led one Saturday night after dinner and we stayed inside instead. Black backdrops, one strobe, two colored lights, and long exposures. The models made it. Ruana Rae, a burlesque dancer, performed her Beetlejuice Sandworm piece, and Katherine, a theme park performer, wore body paint by Mandi Ilene. You are not just practicing a technique at that point, you are building an image with someone fully committed to the character.
The best part was how it had to work. Rather than taking turns with the trigger, one person counted down and fired the strobe so the entire side of the room could take the same shot. Everybody had to nail their timing together. Watching people’s faces when they got it was the highlight of the weekend for some of us.
I’m shy. Will I be overwhelmed?
You might be nervous the first hour. Almost everyone is.
But there is something for everyone at FOCUS. There are shooting bays where you have a camera in your hands and something to do, a trade show where vendors will happily talk about their favorite products, a hotel atrium happy hour every evening, and karaoke on Friday night where nobody expects you to sing, because being someone’s backup dancer counts.
It helps to know the conversations are mostly about the work. Karen Kurta summed up what draws a lot of people back: “I always love learning how other photographers do things. It’s great to share knowledge.” You are not making small talk. You are asking someone how they lit that, and they want to tell you. There are no gatekeepers here!
What should I bring?
Your camera and a lens you like, a trigger, comfortable shoes, and a notebook for all the cool stuff you are going to learn!
Is FOCUS worth the money?
Three+ days of education from working professionals, a trade show, hands-on shooting time, model access, image competition, and a banquet, for less than a single one-on-one mentoring session with most educators. The math is not close.
But the real return is not just in the classes. Mark Halek put it this way: “The conference inspired me to re-explore my creative side of art and photography. So nice to see both new and familiar faces.” Those two things arrive together, and that is not a coincidence. The creative recharge comes from the room, not just the lectern.
Photography can feel like such a solitary path. You are behind the camera, editing alone late at night, running a business by yourself most days. FOCUS is the reminder that we are not doing this alone. Afterward, you have people to text when a client does something strange, when your gear fails, when you cannot tell if an image is good. Nobody puts that on the registration page, but it is the most valuable line item.
What is the FPP Image Competition, and how do I start?
You submit your work to be judged against the 12 Elements of a Merit Image by a panel of trained judges. Anything scoring 80 and up is where merits live, with 80 to 84 counting as Very Good, 85 to 89 Excellent, 90 to 94 Superior, and 95 and above Exceptional.
If that sounds intimidating, here is the honest answer: it is, the first time. Then it stops, because the judges are not there to tear anyone down. They tell you what they see, and that feedback is worth gold in training your eye to see things you might have otherwise missed.
The best on-ramp is PPCF’s own review nights, and we run two kinds, twice each per year. Image Review is free, and your work is evaluated the way PPA does it now, without numbers. Instead of chasing a score, an image lands somewhere along the range from no merit potential through potential, merit, and image excellence, which tells you what you need to know without turning the night into a scoreboard. Merit Image Review is the more formal one, to select the top 10 photographers of the year. A private critique of your image afterward is available for a small fee.
Start with the free ones. Most of the PPCF members who had their names called at the banquet started in exactly that room.
What degrees can you earn through FPP?
Four, and those letters trailing after people’s names at the banquet each represent years of showing up.
- FDPE, the Florida Degree of Photographic Excellence. Earned in Photographic Competition, judged on photographic merit and on digital, artistic, and technical proficiency. Categories run from portraits and illustrative through commercial, social event, and albums.
- FDAE, the Florida Degree of Artistic Excellence. Earned in Artistic Competition, judged on the post-production work rather than the capture. Compositing, digital art, painting, and restoration.
- FED, the Florida Education Degree. For teaching and sharing what you know.
- FSA, the Florida Service Award. For service to the organization and the community around it.
Two of those four have nothing to do with how good your photographs are. Teaching counts. Serving counts.
What happens at the Florida Awards Banquet?
This is the night the whole weekend builds toward. Doors open Sunday at 7:00, dinner at 7:30, and then the room goes quiet in that particular way a room does when everyone is waiting to hear whether their name is next.
There is no big scary stage to cross. When you hear your name called, you walk over, get your award, and take a photo with the FPP President while you are still processing what just happened. The awards fill the banquet room. Streamers are thrown as the top photographer of the year is called. But the awards are not the only reason people come to FOCUS, and for most of us they are not even the main one; it really is the friends you make and cheer for, because we all want to see each other succeed.
Rhea Berkley Lewis, who earned First Place in Portrait for her image “Timeless,” said the thing that is true of the whole evening: “As exciting as the award is, what I treasure most is reconnecting with so many talented friends and colleagues as well as meeting new ones.”
Who from PPCF was recognized at FOCUS 2026?
Our guild had a very good night. Congratulations to:
- Dana Niemeier, the Florida Service Award and the Jim Abrisch Memorial Award
- Susan Torregrosa, the PPA National Award for meritorious contributions to professional photography
- Gary Hughes, First Place in Commercial Advertising and Top Ten Photographer
- Kelli Kirkpatrick, FPP Emerging Artist 2026 and Top Ten Photographer
- Ariel Faith, First Place in Portrait of a Zoo Animal
- Andres Casallas, the Non-Member Award for the highest scoring image by a non-member
- Rich Johnson, First Place in Portrait of a Man, First Place in Portrait of a Child, a Judges’ Choice award, the Florida Memorial Service Award, and Top Ten Photographer
- Daniella Koontz, First Place in Social Event Open, First Place in Social Event Formal Portrait, Best of Show in Social Event, Top Ten Photographer, and an Outstanding Service Award
Two service awards in one night, a national PPA honor, an emerging artist, and photographers who have been doing this for decades, all from the same guild. That is not luck. That is what happens when a group of people supporting and learning from each other. If you are reading this and you haven’t found your local photography guild, we encourage you to find one and join!
Congratulations as well to everyone else recognized, including Jesus Cabrera, who took home Photographer of the Year and the Robert Becker Award for Creative Photography along with numerous other wins.
What’s next?
- Florida School of Photography, September 25 to 28, 2026, in Orlando. One instructor, four days, one subject, all the way down.
- PPCF Image Review nights, quarterly, and the best possible preparation for next year’s competition.
- FPP Spring Seminar dates to come
When is FOCUS 2027?
July 23 to 25, 2027, back at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Orlando North in Altamonte Springs. The lineup is already posted:
- Ashley Lowder, Beyond the Bump: Creating Maternity Portraits with Purpose, the pre-con session
- Angela Hughes, Failing Your Way To Success
- Jean Carlo Penaloza, Creating Video When You’d Rather Be Behind the Camera
- Rita Ann Jana, In Person Sales Made Easy!
- Lee Skrobot, Art & Science of Wildlife Photography: See, Predict, and Capture Nature
- Rich Logan, Adding Public Safety Portraits to Your Offerings
Room blocks are not open yet, so watch FPP’s site if you want to stay on property. Join the FPP newsletter to catch early bird registration pricing when it opens.
So here is the invitation. Join PPCF. Join FPP. Come to a free Image Review night between now and then and enter a few images even if you are certain they are not ready, because that is how everyone started.
And next July, let us be the ones cheering when they call your name.
