This past fortnight has been as much about my day-job (i.e. professional portrait photographer) as much as it has been about the Mastering Portrait Photography website and all that it entails. Which is to say, busy!
The BIPP Annual Awards 2024/2025
It was the British Institute Of Professional Photographers Awards this week and it was my last formal duty has Chair Of Qualifications And Awards. I am stepping down after three years in the role to let someone else drive it forward. I am massively proud of what we’ve done in that time, having set the standards for the Institute going forward, created a hugely successful monthly competition and driven the idea that high standards are crucial if we’re going to compete as an industry. It was a lovely (if slightly sad) evening as, although I am not leaving the BIPP in any way, I have massively enjoyed my time as Chair. If it weren’t for the time pressures on everything else I’m doing, I would stay in the role!
An Honourary Fellowship – I Have Some New Letters!
As a footnote, I was honoured (thrilled is a much better word!) to be awarded an Honourary Fellowship for the work that Sarah and I have done with BIPP and the wider industry. Achieving an Hon. FBIPP is the pinnacle of any professional photographer’s career – seriously, there are only 26 or so of them in existence – so to say it floored me would be an understatement! THANK YOU to everyone at the BIPP and, in particular, the CEO, Martin Baynes for both asking me to be the Chair (an honour in itself) and then nominating me for the award (an even bigger honour!).
I’d say I’m lost for words but you all know that couldn’t be true and, as if to prove the point, I recorded the latest podcast on my way back home in our trusty, though noisy, Land Rover Defender!
Five “Ideas” Are Better Than One “How To”
Most of this week has been spent creating animations for our video “Five Ideas For High-Key and Low-Key Photography” that will be in the Visual Vault in the next week or so.
We’ve come up with this idea of “Five Ideas For…” as it seems a nicer way of enthusing photographers than “How To….”, though there is clearly a space for the latter as well. In the “Five Ideas” videos, we strive to provide ideas (the clue is in the title I guess) that you can use as inspiration or a starting point. Sometimes there are techniques, sometimes just a way of seeing things, sometimes just me being excited about photography but they are all full of beautiful imagery and animations like the one below, to illustrate a point (this one is the lighting setup for a theatrical fog-filled hero shot!)
In Other News
Well, there are new Frame Mockups, our latest Workshops are selling well (the recent Day To Night Workshop was a blast, if a little chilly!) and we’re constantly working up new content.
So there you have it. What a week or two and that’s without talking about the numerous portrait shoots, the one-to-one mentoring sessions (I am beyond excited about working directly with professional photographers) and all the things we have planned! Maybe I’ll get to talk about those next time!
So until then,
Be kind to yourself.
Take care
Cheers
P.