My LRPS journey
To kick thing off I’d firstly like to welcome everyone to my new website and blog. I thought it would be nice to start things off with a little blog post about my journey towards achieving my LRPS.
What is an LRPS? The Distinction ‘Licentiate of The Royal Photographic Society’ is the first level of the RPS’s Distinctions. Licentiate members of The RPS are entitled to use the letters LRPS after their name. The standard is high, but achievable for most dedicated photographers. To be awarded Licentiate of the RPS, you will need to show variety in approach and technique but not necessarily in subject matter, evidence of creative ability and a high technical standard appropriate to your submission, together with a comprehensive knowledge and ability in your discipline.
Why did I choose to go for an LRPS? It all started many years ago when I first set out on my photographic journey. I think at the time it was a way of saying I was a ‘good’ photographer. I looked at the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) and the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and the distinctions they offered and after some research I decided I wasn’t ‘good enough’ and I kind of forgot about it and continued to learn and hopefully improve my photography.
2018 arrived and my ideas of gaining a distinction were rekindled but now for a different reason as I didn’t need the validation of a distinction to tell me my photography was of a competent standard. I was happy with the images I was producing and my photographic style was continuing to evolve in a way that I was happy with. The Royal photographic Society was the first organisation that came to mind when I started to rethink about gaining a qualification as such so there my journey began in the early part of 2018.
I am a very quiet person, I enjoy being alone (hence my love for landscape photography), I’m not particularly confident and have an innate fear of failure and examinations (something I was never consciously aware of until more recently). Since leaving school (many years ago now) I had never known what I wanted to do career wise and have gained no qualifications other than a driving licence. I have been to Uni which I dropped out of at the end of 2nd yr and started other qualifications and career opportunities which I walked away from. None of it down to being unable to do the work required but it was easier to walk away than potentially fail which being logical would never have happened as I was more than capable. I don’t regret any of it as it’s all in the past now and I may well not have taken up photography as my hobby.
Some years ago I decided I was going to achieve a licentiate distinction of the RPS which, at the time was possibly for me some validation that I was capable of taking some decent images. It turned out to be much more than that as my photographic expectations, skills and standards gradually grew over the years. It’s a process/ project which I have almost given up on numerous times but now, I know why I always give up on things it made me determined to continue and achieve the distinction for me personally and not for validation of my photography although it has been quite stressful at times and has made me question if it was worth it.
It has taken me until this year (2018) to have the confidence and belief in the quality of my photography to make the step forward into applying for the distinction and I was determined to achieve it before the year was over. A very big learning curve ensued in how to print images to a good/ high standard although that is open to interpretation in terms of my ability to print the best quality I am after. Many test prints were done and various paper types were trialled until I finally found something that worked for me and I felt suited my images.
Once that was achieved I had the gruelling task of choosing 10 images that worked as a ‘panel’ and sat well together whilst showing good technical quality, variety of technique and subject, creativity and presentation and most importantly for me, met my own standards. Many nights were spent rearranging 20+ prints on the kitchen floor trying to find the best panel I could. Then I read on a couple of forums that It was best not to include all the same subject matter, which for me was Landscapes. It turns out this was not the case and I would have been much happier with 10 landscape images rather than the 8 I submitted and the 2 more intimate images which were in my own opinion the weakest link of my panel.
It was now time to book a place on an advisory day and see where I stood in terms of my provisional panel. With a date eventually booked after missing out on a couple earlier in the year, I went for my first advisory day on the 22nd of September 2018. The biggest hurdle I have had to get over in the years since leaving school was even turning up as I had been so stressed and nervous about it for a couple of weeks in the lead up.
I turned up nice and early on the day and signed in feeling completely out of my depth and unaware of how the day was going to pan out. As the day went on my nerves never lessened but I was feeling a little more confident in my panel as I had seen a number of other panels be reccommended as suitable and many others which required minor changes. There were also a few that had a lot of work to do to meet the expected standard. My name was eventually called as the penultimate panel for the day which actually came as a relief as I thought I had been forgotten about by this point.
Feedback was positive and with a little reworking of picture placement within the panel I was to get a date booked asap as my panel was of a high quality , so I went home and booked my assessment, which happened to fall on my Birthday.
The 6th of November arrived and after a gruelling 415 mile drive overnight to get to Bath I hunted the streets for a parking space eventually finding one some half mile from the RPS headquarters. Time wasn’t on my side by this point so myself and my friend I had dragged along for moral support had to run to get there on time. This was to be the last ever distinctions day at the Bath headquarters as they were moving to Bristol. We signed in and took our seats once we were shown upstairs and my panel was the first to be shown. I hid my head in my hands and awaited the dreaded result only to hear the words “We recommend this panel for the Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society” along with my name and a round of applause. We waited till lunch and seen many other successful panels during the morning then I went to collect my panel only to be asked if they could keep it to show at various event and advisory days over the next 6-8 months. I agreed and set off on the 415mile drive home. If I ever go back for my A or F panel I will not be doing 830 miles in a single day again.
Still to this day I have not received my panel back some 20 months later!
