Quest for a qualification

Just over a year ago, I joined the Society of photographers with the aims of eventually aiming to get photography qualification but ultimately improving my photography along the way. It had taken me a while to decide which route to take, as the different organisations have different requirements and ways of awarding qualifications. At first glance I was struggling to see which of the societies would meet my needs as I did not at that time have a strong genre preference.

I opted to take profession subscription with the society as this would allow me unlimited mentoring. My first submission for mentoring was a wildlife set and the feedback was useful. I then realised that my passion was theatre photography and this was where I was producing my best images. I did some research and found that theatre photographers were included amongst the Society of school and events photographers.

I submitted my first set for mentoring at the end of February featuring just my images from Jekyll and Hyde and received the most amazing feedback and encouragement. This really spurred me on.

For qualification you need 16/20 images to be accepted and in my mentors opinion 15 were up to standard. Unfortunately for me I need to have at least 4 shoots included in a panel so they can see evidence of consistency. I would not be able to include 15 images from one show.

My next panel was submitted in September and included some favourite images from several other of the shows I have covered. Again, I received detailed and helpful feedback on my images. I realised at this stage though that I had been submitting things wrong. After discussing with some of my photography club colleagues, I realised what I should have done was submitted what I was suggesting as a final panel, and then with feedback, either edit the images or swap them for a better image. With this in mind I submitted another panel in November.

The feedback this time was simple. Minor adjustments on some of my new images, swapping out one and it was time to submit for qualification.

So that is what I have just done!

My goal was to achieve a qualification next year, if the 3 judges agree with my mentor, hopefully I can kick off the year in style with the initials SISEP after my name. It is an exciting time.

Contact sheet showing the images I have submitted