My First Year with The Guild of Photographers
If you follow my page on facebook or my insta I'm sure you'll have seen me posting about awards and achievements through The Guild of Photographers, but you might not really know what this is or what it means so I thought I'd write a little blog about my time with this prestigious organisation. In photography there isn't any recognised qualifications, acrediatations or career pathway, no real way to mark progress or level of skill and achievement and so many of us in the business decide to join organisations such as the Guild to accredit our work, help to push our work forward and to inspire and challenge us.
There are many parts to the guild including mentoring, peer support, webinars, meet ups and legal help and support, but the part maybe most well known and somewhat central to the organisation are the monthly awards, which all culminates in a fabulous awards night once a year. There are awards for the images voted best in all the categories, including Weddings, Pets, Maternity, Babies, Natural World and many more. Certificates are also given out to those who have achieved their "Bar' in a category. This involves receiving at least 12 bronzes over 8 months in one category. This year I enterred images for the categories of Pets, Babies and Portraits and was delighted to achieve my bars in all 3, an acheievement I am very proud of.
The images are judged on composition, lighting, story telling and impact. All parts of the image must be cohesive, so backgrounds clothing and props must all compliment each other. There must be no distractions and a clear focal point of interest, all coming together to tell a story. The editing is very important and an award can easily be lost by missing removing a stray hair or dust spot, or highlights or shadows being too bright or dark. Lighting must suit the subject, which in my categories are usually soft natural looking lighting but with enough subtle shadow to give the images depth. There are so many different criteria which at first felt very overwhelming, but as I've learnt more as I've gone along I've begun to really enjoy the process of analyising and improving my own work with the help of my amazing mentor.
I can't wait to attend the awards night in Feb to receive my certifications of the Bars I have achieved this year. My goal for next year is to achieve more silver images and maybe even a gold (although I would probably faint if this did happen as they are given out so few and far between to the very best talent). I'd also love to work towards some of the other qualifications the Guild offer, starting with being awarded 'professional' status with the Guild after having a panel of work judged, then one day I hope to achieve my Craftsman and Master Craftsmanship status.