On Location: The National Memorial Arboretum

Sometimes trips are planned well in advance, and sometimes they just happen.  My visit to The National Memorial Arboretum was one of the latter situations.  I was on my way to Derbyshire - for reasons I will talk about in a post next month - and on the way I passed a brown sign saying 'National Memorial Arboretum'.  So on my way home, I took a detour and paid a visit. 

I knew about the main circular memorial.  Set on a mound in the centre of the Arboretum, it's made up of a series of sweeping curved stone walls bearing the names of over 15,000 people who have died in service to their country.  

A large expanse of stone is empty.  Each year the names of those who have fallen during the previous year are hand carved onto the walls.  

There is space for several thousand more...

I hadn't realised until my visit that as well as the central memorial, there are many smaller memorials to specific regiments and organisations.  Some are small and discreet, some far larger.  

They are being added to all the time.  The statue of Bellerophon riding Pegasus, leaping from a plinth behind a soldier of the Parachute Regiment pulling in his pack is one of the newer additions.

It was a blazing day, and I was there when the sun was strong, and the light harsh.  While walking around the 'Paras' memorial, I noticed that the shadow of Pegasus was falling in such as way that it looked as though the shadow of the soldier had somehow formed the shape of the flying horse. 

There are many beautiful and striking monuments, but one of the most beautiful is not stone, metal or wood.  It's the Royal British Legion's Poppy Field.  A mass of red, white and blue wild flowers, with some interloping yellow splashes of sunshiny brightness, this speaks to all who see it, with little need for signs or explanations.

A superb location for photography, but one which should not be viewed only through the camera.   Moving and thought-provoking, time should be allowed for pauses and reflection.

Aiming for an 'A' - Part 5. Assessment Day (But Not Mine).

8 May dawned fine, but I didn't.  I woke up feeling grotty.  So perhaps it was just as well that this day, which should have been my assessment day, was not. 

Although I had deferred my assessment, and in fact was now not even sure which category to apply within (haven't I been here before...) I  planned to attend the day as an observer.  I had already taken the time off so it seemed a good idea to go along and see the other panels, and hear the comments.  Another training exercise for me, in effect!

I settled at the back of the room, where I could stand up to view the panels without being in anyone's way and keep out of the view of the large camera with which the RPS were filming this assessment day.   My tiny 'handbag' camera (Panasonic Lumix TZ6)  was a fraction of the size, but came in handy to take a few record shots from time to time.

There were 20 panels put forward during the day and the standards were high and strictly kept to.  Only 4 were recommended for the A.  A couple of others went on to the referral process.  One was moved to another category since it clearly fitted 'Travel' better than 'Professional and Applied'.

Things started off well with the first two panels presented both passing.  Then things got tricky, with quite a run of 'not recommended' panels and a bit of an air of rising tension.

I made notes of as many comments on each panel as I could, both the positive and negative, and afterwards (because I'm sad) transferred them to a spreadsheet and assessed which were the most common problems so that I could try to avoid replicating them in my own panel.

In the lead by considerably more than just a short head was what the judging panel called insufficient photographer input.  Around half of the presented panels received variations on this comment.  It's clear that this area needs careful consideration during the shooting and selecting process of producing an A panel.  I've asked about 'photographer input' before, and my understanding of it is that it means presenting something more than a series of 'good' images.  It's demonstrating use of different focus points, shutter speeds, camera angle, perspective, position, depth of field, inclusion or exclusion of the environment and so on.  To me, it means showing that I am using my camera as a tool to make an interesting picture from what is in front of me, and not simply snapping what is literally in front of my eyes.

A lack of photographer style also affected some panels, which is important since the RPS considers that ARPS candidates should be at a stage where they are developing their own recognisable style.  The comment that there was not enough variety was also made a number of times, and this seems to me to tie in quite well with the photographer input issue mentioned above.

Some panels had colour problems.  Some of the colours looked a bit aggressive, and some of the monochrome tones were either flat or too dense!  Because of this, some of the panels didn't look as cohesive as they might have because the variations were usually not across the whole panel.  It interrupted the 'flow' (IMHO!).  Those old favourites from 'L' days - 'over sharpening' and 'blown highlights' made an appearance again, reminding me that I can't afford to forget or disregard what I learnt putting together my 'L' as I work towards my 'A'.

Some post-processing was referred to as being 'a bit ordinary' and some as 'over processed'.  That's a tough one in some cases as it's a bit of an 'eye of the beholder' issue, with some people liking plainer approaches and others preferring more 'worked' results.  For me, I think I learnt that if I were to use a particular processed look, I would need to be cautious.

A quarter of the panels were affected by print quality problems.  I was quite shocked by this actually and it does worry me.  So I will ensure that I check and then order my prints all together, and well ahead of my assessment date in case I have to do it all again.  (I have no large printer at home, so have to have them professionally printed).  I will also ensure my monitor is kept correctly calibrated!

So there were a wide range of things to think about.  Problems flagged through the day came from  right across the entire process: the planning, shooting, processing, printing and final panel selection stages.

Which just shows that the level of the challenge of producing well conceived, well shot, well  processed, well produced and well selected images cannot be underestimated for the 'A' candidate.

Aiming for an 'A' - Part 4. Advice, Then More Advice

Back in April, I posted a rather forlorn note on the RPS Forum.  I was really struggling to get my 'bell pictures' to the necessary standard for a ARPS panel, due in no small part to the technical challenges of photographing bells.  I was perfectly prepared to accept if necessary that my panel might fail if I submitted it, but I wanted the submitted panel to be as good as I could make it, and that was proving very difficult indeed.

I therefore sent into the ARPS the 'advice form', duly completed, and with several sample images.  The results were rather discouraging.  Not because of the comments on the technical shortcomings - I had expected that sort of feedback and it was useful.  But because some comments were made in terms of suggesting some additional images which I just couldn't see how I could achieve, and I was concerned that the assessment panel would have an expectation of what they might see which it was not realistically possible to shoot safely.

Given that I was already struggling, I found the feedback a bit crushing initially.  And so my 'forlorn note' (link to the thread here!) was posted on the forum, asking for comments from others who had also hit a bit of a black spot in their ARPS journey.  There were a number of kindly comments!  As well as the forum responses, I received a message in response via my website, from two very kind people with much experience of RPS distinctions, offering to chat to me on the phone and see how they could help.

I snapped up the offer, and after speaking on the phone we arranged to meet up.  Looking at my still incomplete panel with people who didn't have the same emotional connection as I do, it was sadly obvious pretty quickly that my bells images were not going to be the right path for the 'A'.  I had taken some of my other work with me, and it was interesting to see how some pretty quick changes changed some of my images from 'ok' to 'possible ARPS candidates'.

A couple of sample images, after tweaks:

This is what they looked like before:

This was encouraging, as was the wider conversation about photography in general, and going for RPS distinctions in particular.  Unsurprisingly, looking through my work and talking about options meant that the old issue of which category to apply for came up again. These two images would suit a Visual Art panel, whereas my current slot is for Professional and Applied!

You often hear negative comments about the rift between professional and amateur photographers, but this experience certainly counters that view.  In all I took up a good couple of hours of the time of two busy professionals, and it was really valuable, and very much appreciated.  

So I am now starting again AGAIN! :)  This time I've started from a little further forward though.  I have a couple of ideas and am working with them both at this stage to see which progresses.  As previously, watch this space!