Yeah!!! Another Award Nomination and Another Brilliant Societies Convention

I've just returned from my 7th annual trip to London for the Societies Photographic Convention. I always look forward to this event much like a child looks forward to Christmas. And it didn't disappoint.

For the past few years we've been arriving at the start on the Tuesday to help out which also means we have the pleasure of seeing so many of the others arrive throughout the week. Its like greeting family. To be honest, the whole event feels a little like a family reunion. Each year the same people return and everyone is so friendly. I really look forward to and enjoy so much my time with them all.

This year I had the added pleasure (and hassle) of bringing my daughter. She and the organiser's daughter, Lucy, spent the week together, mostly hanging out and partly helping out. We went sightseeing, which mainly consisted of shopping in Hamley's. They went swimming and they had the honour, which will take them many years to fully appreciate, of being models for one of Faye and Trevor Yerbury's classes. I can't wait to see the results of that experience. Although I consider myself to be a good portrait photographer, photographing my own children is a whole different ball game altogether and not often one that is successful.

During my time at the convention I did 2 talks, one on the topic of the Male Nude and the other on Lightroom and Photoshop. Both of which were highly successful, in my opinion, judging from the comments at the end and the questions throughout. I was certainly very pleased with the feedback I received. The image below was one taken during the talk.

And to top off a fantastic week, I was incredibly surprised to discover I'd been nominated to receive an award in the Boudoir and Beauty category (image below). I never received any emails telling me I was a nominee as I knew others had so was rather shocked when my name and image appeared on the screen announcing so. Unfortunately I didn't win but I was still very honoured and excited for having gotten that far considering this image was among roughly 13000 entries from around the world in the 25 categories and it made the top 5 for its category. It has certainly spurred me on once again to try even harder for next year.

I'll leave you with this one final image. While out sightseeing with the girls I took several snaps for their scrapbook from the week. I thought I'd take another of the escalators in the tube but had planned on it just being a snap of the girls on our way down. My daughter had other ideas. She spotted the stairs in the middle and said 'Mum, this is where you need to be to get the shot'. I was impressed with her thinking. She saw the image needed to be symetrical. Perhaps there is hope for her yet in the world of photography.

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