LRPS on Beez Neez

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 11 May 2014 22:57
Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society
 
 
 
 
 
1tb external hard drive  Pile of Photographs 
 
We set off on Beez Neez with a point and shoot camera, next came the frustrations of speed and the need for different lenses. Next step was the SLR, lenses and a steep learning curve. Then came a massive collection of photographs on an external hard drive. Could we, and I say we go for our LRPS ??? the first of the distinctions awarded by the RPS – the Royal Photographic Society.
Living on the hard is all about maintenance, varnishing and preparation for the next season of sailing, in the evenings Bear and I sat with different Mac’s and trolled through all the folders of all the places we had visited so far. What a task, easy to weed out the ‘not up to standard’, harder when the effort of getting the picture – hanging over a cliff, facing wild currents to get that underwater shot - made for emotional choices. We took our best to
Paihia and with the help of Mike and Trudy at Classique Souvenirs, came away with a stack of 6 x 4’s ready for our first real critics.
Rod and Mary [Sheer Tenacity] have seen their share of beautiful animals in South Africa and like us have been serious tourists at every port of call since leaving home. Without emotion they went through the pile and this was soon halved, which became something more manageable.
 
 
Diane A Panel
 
Diane’s ‘A’ Panel www.dianefifieldphoto.com
 
The new pile was sent by email to Diane Fifield, [our lovely daughter-in-law Kim’s mum]. Diane is a very talented photographer specialising in flowers using a macro lens, above is her Creative Art Panel of fifteen pictures, submitted successfully to gain her Associate distinction, some way off for us but........ By the time we flew back to the UK we had booked a date to attend an all important advisory day where your chosen panel of ten, plus spares are looked at by a panel of judges just like the real assessment day, valuable help and advice on layout – at the end of the day are your choices good enough.
 
 
IMG_2616
 
The next step was to go to visit Diane who had our 6 x 4’s laid out on her cutting table, she had invited her friend Linda Weevil FRPS, an esteemed Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society [that’s a perfect panel of twenty photographs] to help put the final ten into a panel that looked balanced for colour, content and cohesion. Diane and Bob, who was always on hand with cups of tea and supportive words. Meanwhile, many emails had gone out to friends and family to vote for their favourite ten.
 
 
RPS Logo
 

The Royal Photographic Society is the world's oldest national photographic society and the oldest photographic society in continual existence since its foundation. It was founded in London in 1853 as The Photographic Society of London with the objective of promoting the Art and Science of Photography. In 1874 it was renamed the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and in 1894 it became The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. The Royal Photographic Society was granted a Royal Charter in July 2004. and is an educational charity, registered with the Charity Commission. For most of its history the Society was based at various premises in London. It moved to Bath in 1979 and since 2004 its headquarters has been at Fenton House. Membership is international and open to anyone with an interest in photography.

The Society offers various levels of distinctions in all aspects of photography and an Imaging Scientist qualification. It runs an extensive programme of over three hundred events throughout the United Kingdom and abroad, through local groups and special interest groups. The Society acts as a national voice for photographers and for photography more generally and it represents these interests on a range of governmental and national bodies dealing with areas as diverse as copyright and photographers' rights. The Society's collection of historic photographs, photographic equipment and books was deposited for the nation at the National Media Museum in Bradford in 2003.

 

 

L Panel

 

The print of the final layout – no name for anonymity for the judging

 

Then it was to the printers with a thumb drive carrying ten pictures and spares. The lovely chaps in Plymouth Print were great, they ordered the 50 x 40 centimetre mounts and all done in time. Off we went to the Advisory Day at the Dolphin Hotel in Bovey Tracy. Diane was there sitting beside us. Linda was there in a more formal capacity. A really interesting day to see many different panels. Ours still held a fish taken in the Gambier Islands, a pin sharp picture only good seen close up, from a distance it looked like a brown fuzz, so he had to go and the capybara stepped in.  Posh box ordered to carry the finished mounts and off we went to Backworth Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

 
 RPS Judging 
 
The Actual Day. Bright and early, we left our hotel and gathered with all the other hopefuls. Called upstairs we handed our boxes over with layout plan on the top and sat down. Panel by panel went up in front of five judges, one of whom was the chairman. Successful panel owners were asked to put their hand up and were congratulated with feedback. Those not were simply taken down. You do get the chance to email in a replacement if one picture let the panel down. All very nerve racking. Ours went up mid way between coffee and lunch. Everyone else’s panel seems to be judged in seconds, your own seems to take hours, of course it all happens in a five minutes or so. Finally, the chairman called our name. We had passed and somewhere down a funnel we heard applause. 88% passed today, which the chairman told us at the end of the day was extremely high due to the numbers who had attended advisory days. We went back to our hotel relieved and delighted.
 
 
LRPS 
 
New logo that we can use on business cards and letterheads.  
 
A MASSIVE ‘thank you’ to all those who helped, advised and supported us. I say us as Bear has been beside every snap of the camera, every word of every blog and every everything xx
 
 
 
 
ALL IN ALL A PROUD US ON BEEZ NEEZ LRPS
                     FANTASTIC ACHIEVEMENT