SYNC High School Senior Photographer of the Year — 2026
How It Happened
Every year Jonathan and I attend SYNC, the national conference for high school senior photographers. It is five days of intense learning, genuine friendship, and one of the most rigorous print competitions in the industry. This year nearly 850 portraits were entered. A panel of expert judges scored every entry over two full days. The top five studios with the highest scoring averages in the senior categories became the finalists for the most prestigious award of the evening. Each finalist's top six scoring portraits were then evaluated as a complete body of work, side by side, in a head-to-head discussion among the judges.
In the end, our work rose to the top. For the second time. 2023 and 2026.
When they called our names, Jonathan and I just looked at each other. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Worth mentioning: the awards ceremony doubles as the kickoff to the closing costume party. The theme this year was As Seen on TV. There we stood, dressed as the Professor and Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island, still not quite believing what we had just heard.
Winning it the first time felt like lightning. Winning it twice is a conversation we keep having with each other and still cannot quite finish. We have been doing this for over thirty years and we are still learning, still pushing, still showing up to every session trying to make something we have never made before. That is what this award reflects. We are grateful, we are humbled, and we are already thinking about next year.
The Six Portraits
What follows are the six portraits the judges evaluated when they made their decision. Each one started with a real conversation about a real senior. Each one was planned, scouted, styled, and executed with everything we had. The judges saw them as a body of work. We see them as six individual people who deserved their very best.
In Full Color — Mia
Mia is heading to one of the most prestigious art schools in the country, Savannah School of Art and Design, and it shows in everything about this portrait. She is an accomplished clogger in the Appalachian tradition and has had dance portraits made at Transit Candy before, so when she and Burton Photography agreed on the location it was already familiar ground.
Transit Candy is the geometric mural painted on the steps near the Turchin Center for the Arts at Appalachian State University, created by Baltimore artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn in 2020. The mural covers 36 steps and was inspired by regional textiles. It is a location Burton Photography returns to again and again for seniors who love color, because the mural is extraordinary and so is the light. For Mia, it was also personal. The dance, the art, the bold choices — all of it lives in this frame.
Judge's comment: Great composition. Simplicity is the ultimate in sophistication.
The Edge of Everywhere — Sierra
Sierra flew in from Montana to visit her grandmother in Banner Elk and fit her senior portraits into the trip. The location is a private overlook in the NC High Country, accessed through a connection in the community, with Blue Ridge Mountain views that go on for miles. Sierra stands at the edge of that field in a yellow dress, small against the vastness of the High Country, completely at home in it. The control of light in an open landscape like this requires careful planning and precise execution. Every element of this portrait is intentional.
Judge's comment: The color and beauty pull me in. The subject pops off the mountain background. The control of light on the subject is spectacular. Wonderful use of the rule of thirds in the composition. Everything about this portrait is handled beautifully. This portrait exemplifies a high level of craftsmanship and storytelling.
Margaret
Margaret is wearing her grandmother's fur coat. That is the whole story and also not the story at all. The location is her family's own property in the NC High Country, photographed at golden hour in late fall when the light in those trees is unlike anything a studio can replicate.
Burton Photography has been photographing Margaret since she was one year old, and this portrait shows exactly who she has become. The judges were right. The background is as stunning as the subject. That is not an accident. It is thirty years of knowing where to stand and when.
Judge's comment: Stunning portrait, beautiful face angle, background is as stunning as the subject. Demonstrates a high level of craftsmanship, wonderful details in the portrait.
Driven — Jacob
Jacob wanted something cinematic. His best friend's father owns one of the few surviving cars from the production of a major Hollywood film, a heavily modified 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback with Pepper Gray metallic paint, side exhaust, and a 351 cubic inch V8.
Jacob trusted Burton Photography to build something around it. A parking garage, carefully controlled cool lighting played against warm skin tones, a senior who arrived knowing exactly the portrait he wanted. The judges called it technical excellence in service of a concept. We call it what happens when a senior shows up with a vision and a photographer shows up ready to execute it.
Judge's comment: Wow! The color harmony with the cool lighting and warm skin tones is incredible. Great ratio of light on the subject. Solid pose and the environment really supports the story of this portrait. This portrait demonstrates a really good concept that was carried out with technical excellence.
Star Study — Ollie
Ollie was a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, one of the most academically demanding programs in the state, and his passion is astrophysics. He is now at Notre Dame. For his senior portraits, we hiked to Beacon Heights on the Blue Ridge Parkway in daylight and came back down in the dark. Then Jonathan made a second solo hike in the dark on a separate night, waiting for clear skies, to photograph the stars without cloud cover. We used portable LED lighting on the night of the session to illuminate Ollie's face with the effect of light reflecting off the pages of a book, against a real starry sky that Jonathan had already scouted. Two hikes in the dark. One portrait. That is what this session deserved.
Judge's comment: Subject is nicely grounded to the rock he is sitting on in contrast to the starry sky. Wonderful title. Great use of the light bouncing off the book pages to illuminate the subject's face. The maker created a really cool art piece for this senior.
On My Way — Mia
Mia appears twice in our winning portfolio, which tells you something about the range of what a senior portrait session can be. This portrait was inspired by the visual world of filmmaker Wes Anderson — symmetry, saturated color, deliberate styling, and a sense that every object in the frame was placed there on purpose.
The location is Blue Ridge Tourist Court, a restored authentic 1950s roadside motel on Old East King Street in Boone, NC, now operating as a mid-century boutique motor court with modern amenities. Mia and her mother had the dress made specifically for this session. The coat, beret, sunglasses, vintage luggage, and the entire creative concept belong to Bonnie. The smile belongs entirely to Mia.
Judge's comment: Styling is adorable! Impact! Wow! This portrait is so cute and the color tones are perfect. The repeated pinks in the portrait tie everything together. Superb lighting that is bright and happy and the flat quality of the light speaks perfectly to the vintage and nostalgic tone.
What This Means to Us
Eighteen of our twenty portraits entered received an Award of Excellence this year, meaning they scored 80 or above out of 100 in a competition of nearly 850 entries. The other two entries missed by a single point. Scoring at that level is genuinely difficult. A score of 80 in a national print competition is not a participation ribbon. It is a signal that the portrait meets a standard of technical and artistic excellence that most images, however pretty, do not reach.
We do not enter competitions to collect trophies. We enter because the discipline of creating work that stands up to expert evaluation makes us better photographers. And being better photographers means every senior who walks into a Burton Photography session gets the benefit of that pursuit.
To the seniors in these portraits — Mia, Sierra, Margaret, Jacob, Ollie, and Mia again — thank you for trusting us. You inspired every one of these images. This award is yours as much as ours.
Senior portrait sessions at Burton Photography in Boone, NC begin with a complimentary consultation. We are scheduling the Class of 2026 and 2027 now.
burton@NCphotographer.com · 166 Chapel Hills Rd., Boone, NC 28607 · (828) 773-7873
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