Shawna Hinkel is a Master Photographer and Certified Professional Photographer from Dallas, Texas. She has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Texas A&M University, and has been a professional photographer since 2004. She earned her PPA Certification in 2014 and PPA Master of Photography degree in 2019. In 2023, she became the second Master of WPE from the United States, and became a Grand Master Photographer in Fine Art from MPI in 2025. Her work has been accepted into PPA’s Imaging Excellence and Showcase collections every year since 2016, and she received the Imaging Excellence Award in 2025. She also received her AIM Master of Animal Imagery degree in 2026. She was the Dallas Professional Photographers Association Photographer of the Year in 2017 and 2018, and was awarded Life Membership in 2020. She was also named as one of the Top 10 photographers in Texas in 2020. She received the American Society of Photographers’ State Elite Award in 2020 and the Photographic Artistry Award in 2026. She has won a variety of other awards, and has been featured in multiple art gallery exhibitions. She served as 2025 President of Texas Professional Photographers Association and is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief/Copy Editor of ASP Magazine.