Incidental Moments A career changing assignment for a photography graduate in Edinburgh

ASSOCIATESHIP

ABIPP Janice Alamanou

Fine Art

Image © Janice Alamanou

“Aprofessional photographer for over 21 years, I have a varied collection of work with landscapes and people, bringing me to the last decade where I specialise in fine art photography collages. I take the ‘actual’ of a photograph and amalgamate it with other images to become a perceptual and personal image with a story and meaning behind it. Each component is captured by myself - sometimes, it can take years. I create each photograph to be unique; it must only be my work, from people, to sea, to mountains, no filters, my editing. Unlike capturing for a client or what is before you, this concept of photography is about telling my story, the many layers of my life that I have experienced. And through this campaigning for environmental and human rights by exhibiting my work in countries worldwide and using my work to encourage debate and entice people to act. The ‘Soul Elements’.” BIPP QUALIFICATIONS

ASSOCIATESHIP

ABIPP Barry Wong

Dance & Portraiture

“Although there are different profes sional photography associations in the world, I often feel that the BIPP and its member’s enthusiasm for photography are what made me decide to join back in December 2020. I sincerely thank Martin Baynes, his team and all the members for giving me a lot of support and encouragement to receive my Licentiate in May 2021 and now my Associateship in November 2021. All the valuable feedback from judges has helped me tremendously and enhanced my photography skills further. Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to express a sincere thanks to Bill Wu, who’s supported my career through sharing his photography skill with me.”

FELLOWSHIP

FBIPP Panikos Hajistilly

Poratiture

“To say I’m delighted to have qualified as a Fellow with the BIPP would be an understatement! I love having the freedom to photograph what I love, and my panel reflects just that. Beautiful models in classical surroundings, carefully lit and posed by myself, but at the same time allowing my model to express their personality.

“I love all the images in my panel, a few were trickier than others to get just right. One such image was of the model leaping in the great hall at Wentworth House in Yorkshire. I had a clear vision of the shot I wanted in my mind, so set up my camera on my tripod, with my 500-watt lights just out of camera view, and asked the model to jump – gracefully – exactly where I wanted. She duly obliged after many attempts, and it was most certainly worth it!”

F B I P P Q E P

Image © Panikos Hajistilly QEP

QEP Panikos Hajistilly

“I’ve always been a little apprehensive about applying for qualificaions beyond our shores! I’ve been encouraged to do so by a few people, particularly with the US photographic associations but have never gone for it. When I applied for my BIPP Fellowship, Ian Cartwright called me and asked if I’d like to go for a European Qualificaions. I thought about it and decided to go for it.

What made me quite nervous was the fact that any judges from abroad would know nothing about me, my work or my background. But I reasoned that that was actually a good thing, because if I qualified, I’d be definitely doing things correctly in the eyes of the international photographic community.

When I received the call from Karen Massey telling me I’d passed, I was actually quite moved! Although I had no idea who the judges were, I was immensely grateful that they viewed my work to be of a high enough standard to pass. This feeling was heightened even more when I saw the pass rate was actually quite low!

QEP QEP

Karen Massey FEP Vice President

You will have seen me talking and getting excited in the Facebook Community Group about the FEP (Federation of European Photographers) qualification process. I believe it is important that we continue to push ourselves forward to be the best we can be as photographers and offer our clients something they can’t get from others. Achieving your QEP or MQEP (Master Qualified European Photographer) does exactly this; it separates you from those around you.

As a member of the Insitute, you automatically receive your membership to the FEP, which no other organisation in the UK offers you. In a previous issue of the Photographer, I outlined the benefits in full. In this issue, I am delighted to offer my congratulations to both Tracey Lund and Panikos Hajistilly and share the news that they both recently qualified in their QEP in November, where their panels were judged in Finland by five esteemed judges.

The process is very similar to that of the Institute, which is why we set the BIPP’s qualification dates to coincide with that of the FEP to ensure that if you are successful in qualifying with the BIPP, you could use the same panel of images and qualify in Europe. For the QEP, you need to present 12 images, which is exactly what Tracey and Panikos have done.

Considering the fact that it has been two years since we had our last qualification judging, I am very satisfied that we managed to organise a high-quality judging session for the record amount of candidates that entered. Since we normally do this twice a year, we had to plan one extra day of judging to reach over all the panels in a proper way. Approximately 50% succeeded for QEP, a bit less for MQEP. I am convinced that this certification of photography skills, available in a wide variety of categories, provide a very useful tool for the professionals to prove their abilities, both for themselves and for potential customers all over the world.

Truls Løtvedt FEP President

FEP QUALIFICATIONS

QEP Tracey Lund

“Achieving my QEP status is one of my biggest accomplishments this year. It started off being named FEP Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and it has finished the year off being awarded the QEP. Putting a panel together is very hard. It’s about making all the images work together and showing as much photographic technique as possible. This was the most nervous I have been regarding a panel, as this was against many talented European photographers. Being the only wildlife panel to pass as well has made this extra special.”

Images © Tracey Lund Image © Tracey Lund