ROBERT MILLIN ~ LRPS ~ submission details

"Being fairly new to photography, and having enjoyed my first year as a club member and entering the competitive world with some local success, I became interested in finding out about the letters that kept appearing after peoples names. I discovered that I could not go down the PAGB route until two years of entering L&CPU competitions, so I decided to check out the RPS Distinctions. Browsing the RPS website I noticed that an Assessment Day was scheduled to take place in Manchester last summer, so I went along to find out what was involved in gaining an LRPS Distinction.

The idea of the Assessment Day is to take images along and display them whilst the judges present on the day give advice and guidance on how best to plan a panel and the sorts of things that judges look for when assessing images for LRPS. I took a dozen or so images and it is a daunting prospect to put them on display for the audience and judges to view and constructively critique them. My first attempt was not well received as I had tried to demonstrate too much variety and had not presented a panel with any sort of cohesion. Disaster! Or so I thought until I received some one-to-one advice from one of the senior judges and he put me at ease by saying that individually a number of my images were of the correct standard but that I need to be more selective and think about the overall presentation.

A number of successful LRPS Panels were also displayed and discussed on the day and I found this whole experience to be immensely helpful and informative. I would certainly recommend anyone who is interested in going down the distinction route to attend an Assessment Day.

Encouraged I applied for the LRPS and was allocated a date to attend. I had about 8 months to take more images and put together a panel. This gave me time to enter some potential prints into competitions and hear what judges thought (we all know that judging is not an exact science but nevertheless it is usually helpful). I narrowed my choice down to about 18 images and then began to think about the construction of my panel. A mix of portrait and landscape was inevitable and the cohesion of the panel became an issue.
I also wanted to include mono, so that meant at least two mono shots. I also wanted to be true to my preferred style and not just to select images that I thought the RPS might want to see. So an element of risk....

Anyway, the day before the assessment I was still deciding!! Tried all sorts of combinations on my living room floor and then settled nervously on the 10 prints I wanted to put forward. What colour of mounts - white and cream were the obvious but I don't like them so I opted for black. By this time I was fearing the worst...

Its now Distinction Assessment Day and to be absolutely honest I was very nervous. I sat through some 15 to 20 assessments and none of the panels were anything like mine. No sports shots!! All cream or white mounts. I was by now resigned to failure. Nevertheless I enjoyed the Panels and the judges comments. The convention of only when being 'named' if successful and remaining anonymous if unsuccessful was interesting. There was loud applause when candidates were 'named' and quite a few loud whoops.

I watched as my panel of black mounts, bright colours and lots of sports shots was put on the display wall, and the 5 judges, who were sitting about 10 feet from the prints, sit quietly and assess the cohesion of the panel and form first impressions. They then get up and move to the display wall where they point, whisper to each other, lift prints down and examine them very closely. All very serious stuff and done in complete silence as the audience are not allowed to talk at this point. It is highly nerve wracking!! One judge then summarises and the others complete the marking sheets. I awaited her comments and she began by saying 'this is a visually stunning panel, it's the sort of panel that we judges hope is every bit as impressive when we get up close.' She then said 'and we were not disappointed.' I hadn't been breathing for the last 10 minutes but felt a little bit more optimistic now. The scores are collated and the adjudicator does a Strictly Come Dancing pause before saying 'where are you Robert" - I was named - success - very very pleased and I floated all the way home!!

Great experience. Focuses the mind on technical quality, on presentation and on the less tangible skill of seeing an image. Many of our club members have been successful in gaining RPS Distinctions and many have been successful in the top category of FRPS. I would say anyone who is thinking of trying for a distinction should go for it. It is both fun and nerve wracking at the same time but is an overall worthwhile learning experience. Good luck to those who take the plunge."

Robert Millin       (EXTERNAL LINK TO VIEW PANEL IMAGES)