Awards

FRPS - Journey's End

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I was delighted to be awarded my Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society yesterday. The Fellowship distinction requires a body of work of 21 images and a written Statement of Intent defining the purpose of the work, identifying its aims and objectives. It is the highest award the RPS confer.

I confess to being a competitive person & I need targets to drive me. When I started my photographic journey in 2016 it suited my personality to use the awards structure to measure my progress and with the FRPS I’ve now completed all the awards I targeted. It’s taken 6 years and has had many highs and lows - but I count myself as truly blessed to have discovered photography.

If you’re interested you can read my Statement of Intent below & watch a slideshow of the images I used.

Statement of Intent;                    

My objective is to present a submission demonstrating the incredible diversity of life that relies on our oceans for its existence. 

From the largest predator to the smallest scavenger, they all contribute to a complex ecosystem. Harmonious, symbiotic relationships are plentiful, but just as common is the aggression and trepidation that characterises the lives of the hunters and their prey.

I’m privileged to observe some of these scenes first-hand; relaxed feeding, boisterous play-fighting, curious juveniles and stealthy hunters. I find it challenging, exciting and often tragic - but I’m always moved, either by their beauty or their behaviour.

Using a pictorial style, my aim is to convey the emotions I feel as I take the shot, recording one moment of their largely unseen lives.

Top Image at the PAGB PDI Championships

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Each year the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (PAGB) holds 2 championships - one for projected images (PDI) & one for prints. The PAGB organises national events and competitions for more than 1100 photographic clubs with over 40,000 members all over the UK and clubs compete in preliminary heats to get to the final. It’s usually held at Warwick University, but of course it was via Zoom this year.

My club, Rolls Royce Derby, got to the final and battled it out with all the other top clubs in the country…. & won!

I believe it is the first time in the clubs 60 year history they have done so, so it’s a great achievement & congratulations go to the photographers whose images the club used.

It was made particularly special for me because one of my high board diving images was awarded top image on the day. The project that led to me getting these images was probably one of the most complicated I’ve ever undertaken, so it’s great to get this reward.

If you are interested in the set-up I used to get the shots here’s a very short video clip showing how I did it.

MPAGB Qualification Achieved

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I was delighted to find out yesterday that I have been awarded the Masters qualification (MPAGB) by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain. This is the highest qualification the PAGB offer and represents the “Highest Standard of UK Amateur Photography”

It is achieved by submitting 20 images which are then anonymously judged by 6 assessors. Each assessor awards each image a score between 2 & 5, meaning a perfect score would be 30 for an image.

To quote the PAGB “Scores above 24 are relatively unusual but can be achieved by the very best images”. I’m delighted to report that 18 of my images scored 24 & above, with 2 getting the maximum possible 30 marks. A total score of 450 is required to gain the award & I scored 525.

The images I used are below... or here is the PAGB News showing them a bit larger.

Needless to say I’m a happy boy this morning :-)

Gold Medal for Nature in PAGB Masters of Print

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I’m taking a break from competitions for a while but I did make an exception for the PAGB Masters of Print. Only 60 prints are selected each year & I’ve been lucky enough to get in every year since it was launched (5 years I think). I was particularly pleased to be awarded the Gold Medal for Nature for this image - Cormorant Hunting in Sardine Shoal.

If you’d like to see how I captured it you can watch a video here.