I learnt many things about myself and where I want to be in 10 years time, and one thing is certain I always want to be able to be a family photographer. I want to always capture your family memories and create art for your family homes, I always want to be a baby photographer, working with new parents to capture this fleeting moment in time.    During my 6 and a half years in business I have undertaken many training courses and learnt new skills regularly ensuring that I can be the best photographer I can be however until now I have never done anything to gain formal recognistion of my skill.

As part of my journey of self discovery I decided that this was something I could rectify whilst being unable to work!    As a member of The Guild of Photographers I am able to work towards 3 levels of recognition, Qualified, Craftman and Master craftman.  Each level is broken down into 4 different catagories so you can gain recognition in your chosen field, for me The guild of Newborn and Baby Photographers was the obvious choice. 

 I knew from the monthly competition that I enter and regularly win awards through and via the mentoring scheme I am apart of that I had lots of work in my portfolio that is of the required level so I just needed to dig deep and find the confidence to believe in my ability and compile a panel.   

In order to gain recognitiion as a Qualified member of the Guild of Baby and Newborn photographers I was required to submit a panel  from 7 different models, 3 images from each creating 21 images in total.    The judges assess the panel based on 12 elements: Impact, Presentation, Technical Excellence, Lighting, Technique, Creativity, Story Telling, Subject Matter, Colour Balance, Composition, Centre of Interest and Style.  So gaining qualification is no easy task.

Selecting images to use was a challange in itself.  One thing that has been important to me throughout my competition career is that the images I submit have been real client images and not images specfically created for the purpose of competition!  It was important to me that the images used within my panel were also all real client images taken during genuine sessions where capturing sufficinet images within a given time frame was one of the many factors influencing my work. 

Once I finally selected my 7 models and narrowed it down to 3 images each I had to also submit a supporting statement regarding my photography career and the choice of images selected and then the nervous wait for the verdict began!  The panel of judges meet once a month to assess any panels submitted for Qualification and I was very lucky (more a fluke) that I happened to send mine over only a couple of days prior to the assessment date!  But those 2 days were long enough.

Finally after a long couple of days waiting and then on decision day constantly refreshing my email inbox I received the news!  I had done it,  I was officially a qualified photographer!  Not only that but I recieved No advisories from the judges.  6 and a 1/2 years of hard work and determination and I finally had the recognition as a qualified photographer.   This qualification would not have been possible without all of my clients who grant me permission to share their images in the public domain, so to each and everyone one of you Thank you.  Thank you for allowing me to share you beautiful children with the world, thank you for trusting me and choosing me to be your photographer.  

I have no intention of leaving it another 6 1/2 years before submitting a panel for my Craftsman status ,  Work on this has already began! So watch this space.    

Marie

Would you like to know more about my photography services?

If you would like further information about services available at Slice of Life Photography please get in touch via the form below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

During the time of closure I was fortunate enough to be able to work on other photography projects and many of you were able to recieve newborn photos by using the compsition service I created.  I also met lots of lovely families through the lockdown doorstep project where I was also able to raise some money for Lincolnshire Air Ambulance.  I  finally sat down and prepared my panel for submission to The Guild of Photographers and am delighted to have been awarded Qualified status for Newborn and Baby Photography.   I have also been busy supporting my wedding couples who have had to postpone their weddings and am delighted that I have been able to accomodate every single couple’s chosen new date and can not wait to capture their weddings later in the year or in 2021!   And finally I have been preparing for the time I could reopen by preparing a Covid-19 Health and Safety procedure.

Being back in the studio for these last 2 weeks has been amazing and I have met so many beautiful babies and clients.   Many of the babies I have met since re-opening are babies that were born during lockdown and so their newborn sessons had been postponed.  I have captured baby photos for little ones at 12 days old and the oldest newborn was photographed at 10 weeks old.  All the sessions were amazing and the covid-19 procedures I have implimented worked well for everyone.  On arrival at the studio all parents for baby photoshoots have been given the choice of me maintaining the social distance of 2 metres and guiding them with posing and then me stepping in to capture the images before guiding them on the next pose or for me to wear PPE and carry out the session in my normal manner but wearing a mask and santatising my hands regularly.  All parents have so far opted for the second option which has been truely wonderful.  It means so much to me that families trust me with their precious bundles.  

Aside from the need to social distance it has been necessary to remove so of the harder to clean props from the studio temporairily.  Lily’s Mum was desperate to have an image of her little girl in my hot air ballon to go alongside their world map!  Unfortunately it is a prop that i have had to remove for now but not wanting to disappoint we succesfully posed Lily in the required pose and with the same fluff layer but on my beanbag and I then later used my editing skills to create a compostion and placed Lilly in to a previous picture of the ballon!  I can’t wait to see what it looks like up on the wall in their home. 

Aside from creating lots of beautiful baby photos  I have had the lovely Zak and Ellis visit for their final milestone session, their first birthday cake smash photoshoot!  Cake smash photohshoots are carried out with full social distancing being maintained and whilst this did take a little juggling at times we were able to complete the full session safely.

It really has been a true pleasure to be back doing what I love,  photography is a true passion for me and I whole heartedly believe in the importance of capturing memories for this and future generations to enjoy. 

Marie

Would you like to know more about my Newborn photography sessions?

If you would like further information about services available at Slice of Life Photography please get in touch via the form below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.