I was extremely honored and humbled to have two of my images receive Honorable Mentions in the Documentary Family Awards (@documentaryfamilyawards ) this past March. The awards program, this year in its 4th iteration, is an international photo competition seeking to recognize documentary family photographer’s worldwide. Photographers in 40 different countries submitted images for this round of judging.

To say the competition is fierce is an understatement. The thousands of entries go through 2 rounds of judging: first a 3 person jury, this round consisting of Guest judges documentary photographers Kholood Eid and Khalilah Hall (@khalilahhallphoto @kholoodeid), and Wall Street Journal photo editor Parker Eshelman. Each judge independently reviewed every single submission, deciding on the 697 final images to move forward to the final round. If your photo is selected, your image goes to a 2nd round of judging, with documentary photographers Kirsten Lewis Bethmann @kirstenlphotog and Jenna Shouldice @jennacshouldice (the Founders), and a 3rd guest judge, this round Kholood Eid.

I’ve been submitting photos since the awards first began, and have never made it past the first round. During the live judging, when I saw not one, but two of my images had made it into the final selects, I started crying (I’m a big baby, I know). In an industry that is filled with so much talent, talent that is far greater than mine frankly, I couldn’t believe that someone felt my two little images deserved to be in the same group as these other folks. I still can’t believe it – I kept telling my husband that I thought at some point someone was going to tell me that they’d picked my photos in error.

But once the official award winners were published, low and behold – my photos were still frikkin in there! If it was a mistake – it’s too late now!! I’m taking these Honorable Mentions and keeping them.

For a complete overview of the awards, visit https://www.documentaryfamilyawards.com/awards/