The Convention: A Near Winner, a New Letter Beside My Name and a Really Great Time!

Once again I attended a fantastic event run by the Societies for photographers from around the world. The Societies Convention is held in the Hammersmith area of London each year at the start of year. For me its like Christmas and New Year all over again.

This year my husband and I were apart of the event from the very beginning to the very end. We saw the set up, he saw the taking down (thankfully I was resting at that point). For the first time I was able to attend the business school, see some of the print judging and sit in on some of the Qualification Panel judging. More specifically, I got to see my own panel being judged. It has been some time since I applied for my Licentiateship with the SWPP and though I had been meaning to take the qualifications further one thing lead to another which meant this took a back seat. Until this year when something told me to just go for it. What do I have to lose? At worst I get some good feedback which would help me to improve my skills. At best I'd get the all alusive A I'd been striving towards for years and the reasurance that my work is heading in the right direction.

Well this year I reached my goal as I was awarded my Associateship in portraiture. I am among a select few (statisically around 10% of all photographers) who have taken the time to get this recognition and been successful in achieving it. I consider it to be a huge honour, particular when sitting there watching the high caliber of judges in the room that day who decided that I deserved this qualification.

This gave me great confidence when approaching my talks which took place on Friday and Sunday morning. In hindsight, 8am Sunday was a bit of a misktake. I wouldn't have woken up that early on Sunday to see me so how could I expect anyone else to. Needless to say turnout was less on Sunday than it was on Friday. We went from a full house to a slighly less than half house. Lesson learned, if I get the chance to speak again that is.

We finished off with the Awards ceremony. Each year, throughout the year thousands of entries are made in a monthly competition that culminates in the annual awards. All entries that were awarded a gold in the monthlies make it to the annual competition where it is narrowed down further still to a small selection for each category. This year one of my baby images made it to the top three amongst entries from all over the world.

Unfortunately though, it did not win, but as some would say, 'It is an honour just to be nominated'. And the truth is, I do feel quite honoured to have made it this far. Of course it would be better to be announcing an award but I may only be a couple of marks away from the winning entry and to me that means my image is still a very high quality image. And that says a lot about the quality of work I strive for on a day to day basis. The image was taken as part of a standard client shoot. This was not done in my spare time when I could take the time to be more creative. I take the same time for all my shoots. In every shoot I do I have the hope that I will be greating an award winning image. It is certainly what I am working towards.

There is one thing I took away from the convention that I really wish I hadn't and that is the flu. I've been so under the weather these past two weeks which is why this post has taken so long to be written. My New Year's resolution of keeping on top of my blog has already fallen by the wayside. But not for long. I'm back and this year is going to be a great year. I'm going to make sure of that. A quote from a speaker this year that has really hit home with me is 'Its not what you know but what you do' is going to be my motto this year. And this year I am going to do loads.

Comments

London in Spring, Whats Not to Love?

Well I know there is still a lot not to love but I'm choosing to see the great things about London at the moment. I am having a ball this year visiting London as often as I can. Which is unusual for me since I usually prefer the comfort of my own home, in rural old Leicestershire. Staying home and avoiding people has always been the easy option. But this year, possibly due to the wonderful weather we keep having, has me longing for venturing out. Again, just like my last trip, I headed out with my good friend Panikos Hajistilly . Living in North London he finds it easy to meet up for our shoots. This time though I had more of an idea of the sights I wanted to use as the backdrops for my portraits. With it being spring I was in search of colour, preferably flowers. Admittedly. I didn't quite get what I was looking for. The white fronted terraced houses with pink magnolia trees we did not find unfortunately. But I did make it to Peggy Porchen's which was a must see on m...

Fine Art Portraits of a Beautiful Young Girl

So this is really becoming my thing lately. I am having so much fun working with children individually where I can direct and interact in ways that bring the best out of my subject. This has certainly become a process now of creating rather than taking photographs. And its what I have always wanted to be, a portrait artist rather than a photographer. I cannot put into words fully just how rewarding this is. For each of these shoots (as with nearly all of my shoots) we begin with a consultation where we discuss what we would like to achieve in the shoot. Here we will consider the type of clothing and any possible props. We will look at both the clients clothes and my ever growing collection so we can pick what will work best. In all circumstances we are heavily guided by what the child in the portraits wants to wear as I see this as vitally important. If he or she is uncomfortable its going to show and the portraits won't work. But most are happy to play dressups and wear a com...

5 Reasons you Should Consider Getting a Professional Headshot

Headshots, or profile pictures are becoming a requirement of so many tools we regularly use or reference today. From Facebook to Linked In, Instagram to Twitter and often any website that represents a company for which you work or own will have a place to include a photograph that is meant to show your audience who you are. And how you present yourself there will tell your audience so much about you. 1. A profile picture is your first opportunity for your audience to see you. Its often the first impression you make and we all know you only have one chance at a first impression. A professional photographer has the skills to show you in the best, most suitable way to give a great first impression. (These headshots were created for recruitment firm Optima UK who asked to have their logo placed behind them. I think it makes these headshots quite eye catching and they should do their job well.) 2. Using a professional to create your headshot will ...

Never Work With Children or Animals

Or so the saying goes. But I have to say that working with dogs has been so lovely. They have been almost entirely a dream to work with. I say almost entirely because we have had a few moments where a dog has needed to settle. And one moment where the dog had settled but one of my cats decided to have a look through the glass door which, as you can imagine, rather quickly unsettled the dog. Still, that didn't stop us from creating incredible work. In fact it was during that shoot with the cat instance when I created two of my favourite pieces, shown below. (It was while sitting on the couch here when he noticed the cat peering through the curtain) I don't know if I've just been lucky or all dogs are just easy to work with. I photographed a french bull dog puppy and I thought that would be tough as he hadn't had time to be properly trained yet. But he did everything we wanted in no time at all. And this included the props we used here (below), which to me...

Portraits Even a Teenager Boy Loves

Finally I've had the opportunity to photograph a young man in my studio again. And funnily enough this was the second time that week which is absolutely superb. In both cases these young men were just as enthusiastic to be involved as I was, which is something I don't often get when I'm working with very young children, my usual subjects. With young children I find my energy in their cuteness. But with young adults I get energy from their excitement over how the portraits are working out. I get such a buzz from the experience and that can keep me going for hours, often editing the photos straight after the shoot for hours more. Shoots for teenagers is something I've been wanting to focus on for some time. Its not something that I often get asked for though unfortunately. It tends to be parents of very young children who want to capture moments that are slipping through their fingers at lightening speed. Maybe its teenage moodiness that means these moments don...

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog