Following the success of last year’s Judges’ training day, June 2010 saw the Coventry Hilton Hotel again playing host to a panel of MPA Fellows eager to hone the skills of members ‘rising through the ranks’ and assist the qualifications and awards processes. Introduced once again by Eric Jenkins, compared to the inaugural event the programme was very focused on refining the process of judging and the criteria on which images are assessed.

With a much faster introduction, few changes have been made to this year’s requirements for Awards, and only minor changes to the Qualifications – excellence is excellence, after all – and the Qualifications process was addressed in detail by Kevin Wilson prior to the Awards process. At the second training day members were able to give a little more feedback, both on their own qualifications experiences and on the process in general.

Dennis Hylander delivers one of his famous critiques

For MPA members looking to submit panels or images, the crucial thing is as ever to consider the entire panel as a whole. Mentors and judges alike are looking for very similar things, with many years of accumulated experience throughout the MPA’s history contributing to a detailed, consistent and fair assessment. Your mentor’s advice is valuable and combines with content such as this in the magazine to hopefully guide you to success; coming straight from the Judging committee you ignore this sort of information at your peril!

Most importantly, your panel as a whole can be affected by one or two flawed images as Kevin demonstrated with a rejected submission – later revealed to be from one of the judges who successfully qualified with a different panel. Even at this stage, the feedback and comments about the images were consistent, and agreement was reached very quickly.

Using your mentor is key to improving your scores in this process. Submit raw images (not raw files, but uncropped, unretouched prints) to give them a true impression of your capabilities as a photographer and remember, the advice you get about post-production will benefit from this. You’re not being judged at this stage, you’re being assessed for the best information and advice to go forwards.

Kevin Wilson engages an attentive Ewen Forsyth

This year the submissions process for Qualifications has been slightly revised, with profiles and portfolios being sent directly to the MPA and the workbooks being forwarded to the judges in advance. Working on your print quality requires at the very least attention to the finished results as much as the final image; Lisa Visser’s Fellowship panel went through several stages before she was happy, as she explained to the delegates.

“When I decided to do the Fellowship, my mentor told me I was ready to do it – I thought I was really rubbish, I wasn’t well in the awards. Being told that one picture was Fellowship standard was encouragement to just go with it, I felt I could run with it and focused on doing that.

“To create the panel, I had about four images that matched the requirements – the rest were produced between April and July; the images were reprinted, testing different papers, nothing was going to go that wasn’t perfect”.

The standards for assessing the images remain with lighting measured with an exposure meter to be 1 second @ ISO 100 and f/16.

The Skillset Courses Database also helps users to find the best, industry endorsed media training available by indicating which courses and institutions have been awarded the Skillset Tick kite mark. The Skillset Tick indicates to students and employers that a course or institution has undergone a rigorous, industry-approved assessment and has been designated a centre of excellence in creative media disciplines. The database contains information on a total of more than 8,000 creative media courses at all levels – from undergraduate degrees to CPD short courses.

The database, which builds on work undertaken jointly with the BFI, allows users to perform customised searches and to create their own profiles so that they can save their preferences and searches for future use. It also contains dedicated sections on the Skillset Tick and Skillset-funded courses. These sections allow you to quickly find the courses and institutions that have been assessed by industry as offering the most practical and up-to-date training, as well as providing a comprehensive guide to courses that are being funded by Skillset.

Skillset’s chief executive, Dinah Caine, said: “Skillset’s new courses database is an invaluable tool for anybody who wishes to access creative media training in the UK. With more than 8,000 courses listed, this database allows media professionals and those wishing to enter the media industry to navigate the crowded, and often confusing, education and professional training landscape with ease.”

The database can be found at www.skillset.org/courses.

Lighting on-location – free admission – no booking required!
Presented by : Uzair Kharawala
Apple Store Regent Street, London
15 June 2009 7.00 to 8.30pm
More info visit www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet

Business & Beyond
Presented by : Uzair Kharawala
Manchester
23 July 2009 10.00 to 16.30 hrs
More info visit www.nikon.co.uk/training
Price £85.00 including refreshments and lunch

Portraits for Profit
Presented by : Uzair Kharawala
Manchester
22 July 2009 14.00 to 20.00 hrs
More info visit www.nikon.co.uk/training
Price £200.00 including refreshments and lunch. Limited to 8 delegates.

Oz is an expert teacher, as well as being the creator of the FotoSF software package for studio management. He is an experienced event photographer, and Nikon started using him as a teacher after learning about his use of their wireless flash system for weddings, location portraits and events work. He is an Associate of the MPA

MPD May 09

The link above will open the latest edition in digital Flash Reader form that you can read on-line, print off, or download.

This website welcomes new photographers to the magazine, which can already be read on-line through our free public Flash Reader editions (see PUBLICATIONS in the right-hand column). MPA also welcomes all aspiring professional photographers to join as Affiliates, a grade below full membership open to those who itend to go full time within 3 years.

The MPA itself is restricted to full time, professional, qualified photographers and new members must pass the Diploma in Professional Photographic Practice before reaching the next stage, submission of a panel of 20 images for Licentiate qualification. Only after both these stages – normally completed in six months to a year – can they remain in membership and use the MPA logo and designated qualification.

The Catch-22 situation is that in order to qualify, you may require skills and information hard to find unless you are already a member. This is why the Affiliate membership category was established, to welcome photographers into the Association with the ability to attend regional meetings, receive the magazine, and have access to all the information full members require.

This website is in the early stages of development (May 2009) and will change substantially over the coming months. Please bookmark it, and make a return visit occasionally to see what’s new.

- David Kilpatrick Hon FMPA FBIPP
Publisher and Editor, Master Photo>Digital