ARPS

On October 12, 2011, I presented a portfolio of 15 prints at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath for the Associateship distinction. I'm delighted to record that my submission was successful, and that I am now ARPS.

Here is the hanging plan for the portfolio.

Hanging plan for my ARPS submission

I've put the whole thing on the RPS website (they show them rather small, I afraid), so here is one that I like a bit bigger.

The Fighting Falcon Swoops: Nikon D300, Nikkor 200-400 f4 zoom

It is the Belgian Air Component F16 at Fairford in 2010. I was standing in a muddy field north of the runway. The Red Arrows had been up before, and had left some of their red smoke around. I liked that a lot, so made it a bit more obvious by pushing the a channel in Lab colour, and restricting the effect to the cloud with a layer mask. I also pushed the contrast, and added a bit of grain with a couple of Topaz Adjust layers.

Just a couple of comments about the ARPS process while I'm writing. When I was awarded my LRPS 18 months ago, I had hoped to be able to use those picture towards the ARPS. But on taking advice, only one of them survived into the final panel (#5 in the hanging plan). I went along to an ARPS workshop earlier this year - and that was extremely useful in getting a broader perspective on what it takes to get the A. If you're in the process of working towards an A, I strongly recommend booking in for a workshop (the same applies to the LRPS). I also took advice one-to-one from two members of A panels, and they were extremely helpful in their comments as well. In the end though, I was wary of taking too much advice: I felt I had to make my own mind up, and put together a panel of pictures in my own way. So the portfolio I presented encapsulates my own view of my work, which makes it especially pleasing to have gained the award.