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RPS Workshops / Committee matters

A quick update about my role in the local region of the Royal Photographic Society..

Following a very successful series of workshops I helped to run at the RPS HQ last autumn, I will be presenting three more at the RPS in the spring on the topics of digital workflow and editing with Lightroom and Photoshop.

I’ve also accepted a position on the committee of the RPS Western Region, which is the societies largest chapter with some 800-odd active members.  My role will primarily be concerned with education and training, but I’ll also be dealing with the region’s membership database, mailing list and newsletters etc.

Talking of newsletters, I’ll be sending out a new year update myself very soon with preliminary details of some travel and training events for this year so keep an eye on your inbox!

More Than Human (Tim Flach)

I’m rather looking forward to the first Royal Photographic Society meeting of the year tomorrow as we have a guest speaker who’s work I really admire.

Tim Flach is a great wildlife photographer with a rather unique style

The one thing I will say, is that his website is rather out of date, relying rather heavily on outdated technology such as Flash, and the news hasn’t actually been updated since 2012, but don’t let that put you off. I Highly recommend his latest book ‘More Than Human’ (The image on the right is a link to buy it from Amazon)

Ooh crikey…

.. I’ve just realised it’s only three weeks to go until I’ve got to present my panel to the Royal Society!

For those who don’t already know, I’ve applied to be considered for a Royal Society distinction. Just the first level or ‘Licentiateship’ for now. This first level is a pretty thorough assessment of your technical proficiency and involves the presentation of a panel of ten images which are then scrutinised by a panel of five expert judges, all of whom are themselves Fellows of the Royal Society. *gulp* I’d love to brazen it out and say I’m not worried but to be honest I’m bricking it!

I’ve spent most of this evening trying to narrow down my final selection and it’s a lot harder than I’d thought it would be when I first applied. It’s not so much the selection of individual shots that’s hard but more the way they need to sit together as a cohesive panel..

I figure the only way I’ll really nail it is to get a lot of the candidates printed up at the size I need them and narrow them down as finished prints. So, time to melt the plastic and just go for it.

I do own a mat cutter but having found my initial experiments to be quite frustrating I’ve also decided to let the experts deal with the cutting and so I’m getting my mounts cut to size by the people at http://www.picturelizard.co.uk. Works out cheaper that way too!