Award winning photographers

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Carlo
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Afternoon,

I have been looking at websites for ideas to improve my own and what i found was that a high percentage boasts of award winning.

I have my doubts as the images on the sites are are badly exposed, out of focus, etc.

So I wondered how they can advertise as award winning when they appear to fail at the basic rules of photography.

as far as i am aware it wasnt photographers on this site, just random ones that appeared during a google search.

so just wondering if any one had any thoughts on this?

thanks
 
Photography is more than rules, sometimes a great shot is just a great shot.
 
If I get the lads in the pub to say who is the best sports photographer in the current building.. they say me and award me a pint of bitter for being the best... I can put on my website .."Award Winning Photogrpaher" ..

If I get seen on match of the day pitchside as a player runs past me.. I can say "As seen on TV"

There are a lot opf ways of spinning the truth.. people are so gullible :)
 
donkeymusic said:
So I wondered how they can advertise as award winning when they appear to fail at the basic rules of photography.
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Which awards have they won?

If you want, you can have the prestigious twenty-to-three Monday award and then you can call yourself and award winning photographer. Yours for the price of a Jaffa cake.. ;)
 
As others have said, I've seen people claiming to be award winning photographers for nothing more than third place at their local camera club.
 
I suppose not every photo can be 'Award Winning' but nonetheless the photographer is in fact 'Award Winning'.

Not all 'once in a lifetime' shots that win awards are in perfect focus or composed correctly.
 
KIPAX said:
If I get the lads in the pub to say who is the best sports photographer in the current building.. they say me and award me a pint of bitter for being the best... I can put on my website .."Award Winning Photogrpaher" ..

If I get seen on match of the day pitchside as a player runs past me.. I can say "As seen on TV"

There are a lot opf ways of spinning the truth.. people are so gullible :)
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good point
 
It's a bit like those fake qualifications you can buy, and the 'professional' associations that encourage you to put letters after you name that no-one knows the meaning of but that the gullible think look impressive.

Luckily, it's easier to sniff out a crap photographer than a fake 'medical practitioner' or whatever.
 
Agree with the responses, anyone can put an award against their name if they want to. Heck, I won a Nat Geo competition about 8 years ago but I don't even mention that, if it's a recognised award then fare play to the person, but as you'll see on several of these websites that the awards are not mentioned, just an award winning tog. Don't let it worry you, the client will always get the pitch fork out when they discover that the tog was full of rubbish :D
 
I think there are a few people here who've commented without really thinking it through, sure not all photographs have to be technically perfect.

But believe me, some pro photographers claiming to be 'award winning' would have 100% of their stuff trashed as an amateur on sites like this.
It's difficult for the OP to show without links - but you could google 'award winning photographer yourtown' sit back and be entertained.
 
jon ryan said:
It's a bit like those fake qualifications you can buy, and the 'professional' associations that encourage you to put letters after you name that no-one knows the meaning of but that the gullible think look impressive.
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A typical response from somebody who has absolutely no understanding of the qualification process. I wonder how many of the people in this thread could achieve the first rung of the ladder, if they were to try.

Your suggestion that accreditation (or awards) from the RPS, BIPP, MPA or SWPP is an attempt to hoodwink the public is frankly offensive. There are a few on the forum who could probably describe just how difficult it was to gain a Licentiate, let alone the higher grades, which might explain why those individuals are justifiably proud of their 'letters'.
 
Lindsay D said:
A typical response from somebody who has absolutely no understanding of the qualification process. I wonder how many of the people in this thread could achieve the first rung of the ladder, if they were to try.

Your suggestion that accreditation (or awards) from the RPS, BIPP, MPA or SWPP is an attempt to hoodwink the public is frankly offensive. There are a few on the forum who could probably describe just how difficult it was to gain a Licentiate, let alone the higher grades, which might explain why those individuals are justifiably proud of their 'letters'.
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Go and pick your toys up. At once!
When you get the steam out of your ears, go back and read what I actually wrote; you may notice that I didn't mention any of the organisations that you cite. There are plenty of good awards, and for the record I am a tutor for a distance learning academy that grants a recognised one. But there are also a whole bunch that charge high amounts for 'advice' that is freely available on tuh interwebs, and often sell bad advice into the non-bargain.
 
Lindsay D said:
A typical response from somebody who has absolutely no understanding of the qualification process. I wonder how many of the people in this thread could achieve the first rung of the ladder, if they were to try. '.
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somehting ironic about a post stating people dont understand when you clearly didnt understand the very thing your crying about :)
 
jon ryan said:
Go and pick your toys up. At once!
When you get the steam out of your ears, go back and read what I actually wrote; you may notice that I didn't mention any of the organisations that you cite. There are plenty of good awards, and for the record I am a tutor for a distance learning academy that grants a recognised one. But there are also a whole bunch that charge high amounts for 'advice' that is freely available on tuh interwebs, and often sell bad advice into the non-bargain.
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I did read what you wrote Jon, and your meaning was very clear: "the 'professional' associations that encourage you to put letters after you name that no-one knows the meaning of but that the gullible think look impressive".

In response I listed the "professional associations" who are responsible for awarding the letters which designate a qualified member (as opposed to one who hasn't been through the arduous and sometimes stressful judging process). There is no misunderstanding here.

Whilst I fully agree that many so-called "award-winning" photographers have clearly not won an award of note or a recognised industry award (and some of it is a bit of a joke) I do feel that a broader association is being applied here.

As I appear to be the only one who finds this kind of thing unpleasant, I had best leave you to it. There's a pack mentality here and I don't think a variety of perspectives always goes down well.
 
Rubbish photos can win awards, just as rubbish photos can be sold. Sometimes the waffle is more convincing than the product.
 
Lindsay D - although it could be deemed as a little 'barbed', what Jon said specified no particular association and he didn't even mention photographic societies (etc)...

Anyways....

I won an award for a photo that I did for a Ty Nant photography competition, which the top three (I was second) were awarded some money, a certificate and our pics were exhibited in several locations around the world. Therefore I am an award-winning photographer.

The difficulty I have in perpetuating my classification as 'award-winning' is that as well as the image being mediocre, I have moved on since then and that particular image doesn't represent me now. Therefore it doesn't interest me to push the 'award-winning' thing. Also, I look very, very stupid for doing so :)

But nevertheless, the image (despite its many deficiencies) won an award. Like those that the OP refers to.
 
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Feel away with your assumption of 'broader association'. That was neither implied or intended, it was you jumping to a (wrong) conclusion.

I hate, loath and despise the "Make £££$$$€€€ from photography!!!" outfits that suck in people with a genuine desire to make a go of a tough way to make a living and that sell spurious 'qualifications' . Your erroneous assumption that I was referring to any legitimate organisation is offensive.
 
Personally, I think if you cant state who the award winning body was, I'd take any claims of "award winning" with a humongous amount of salt.

They simply put it on their site in the fairly safe knowledge that no one is going to bother asking any questions.
 
jon ryan said:
Feel away with your assumption of 'broader association'. That was neither implied or intended, it was you jumping to a (wrong) conclusion.

I hate, loath and despise the "Make £££$$$€€€ from photography!!!" outfits that suck in people with a genuine desire to make a go of a tough way to make a living and that sell spurious 'qualifications' . Your erroneous assumption that I was referring to any legitimate organisation is offensive.
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My assumption was completely understandable. You should have been more specific. :sulk:

Yes, any outfit behaving as you describe is pretty shoddy. I don't suppose there's any recourse to trading standards either, since they're probably not doing anything illegal, simply misleading their punters. I know there was a spate of these so-called training organisations a few years ago.

I remember one photographer recently who is/was a member of one of the mainstream societies and was stating on his website that he was a fully qualified photographer. On closer scrutiny he'd done a spurious distance learning course and had gained a certificate at the end of it, and had placed a few bad photographs of his family on his website - to the untrained eye it might appear that the qualification had been gained from a legitimate organisation because of how he had worded it. Some photographers do mislead people. And some of them will even "borrow" other people's work in order to boost their apparent credentials.
 
I'd argue with any 'fully qualified' photographer that they don't know everything and never will, such is the need for experience over qualifications...
 
I advertise award winning on my site as I do see it as somewhat of a personal achievement and I'm happy to use it in promoting my site, I've had a couple of genuine competition wins so why not advertise them :shrug:

Simon
 
I just won second place in this competition:

http://www.cbrephotographer.com/

I wasn't going to shout about it but it seems to be quite a big deal, the winning photos have appeared on the BBC, the Mirror, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Metro (the Metro?) and a whole raft of websites around the world.

Does this make me an award-winning photographer?
 
Yes Glenn well done I was admiring those shots yesterday
 
simonkit said:
I advertise award winning on my site as I do see it as somewhat of a personal achievement and I'm happy to use it in promoting my site, I've had a couple of genuine competition wins so why not advertise them :shrug:

Simon
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Same here.

The only awards I actively promote I consider to be credible and genuine. I also list what I've won too.
 
PMN said:
Feeling a little insecure perhaps? Seriously, what a ridiculous thing to say.
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No, a valid response Paul, and your response is typical of this forum. Your comment on 'insecurity' is absurd given that a proportion of my time is spent helping to guide photographers towards their qualifications (which is part of being qualified at Fellowship level).
 
Lindsay D said:
No, a valid response Paul, and your response is typical of this forum. Your comment on 'insecurity' is absurd given that a proportion of my time is spent helping to guide photographers towards their qualifications (which is part of being qualified at Fellowship level).
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If you're so helpful towards others achieving qualifications why would you apparently use your own qualifications against others on a forum? The line I quoted from you can only be taken two possible ways to me, you're either saying you're genuinely better than everyone else or you're actually a little insecure and feel the need to make yourself feel better by putting others down.

Thank you for clarifying which one it is.
 
PMN said:
If you're so helpful towards others achieving qualifications why would you apparently use your own qualifications against others on a forum? The line I quoted from you can only be taken two possible ways to me, you're either saying you're genuinely better than everyone else or you're actually a little insecure and feel the need to make yourself feel better by putting others down.

Thank you for clarifying which one it is.
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I don't know what you're trying to say Paul, but the suggestion I am "using my qualifications against others on a forum" is baffling. There have been several occasions where forum members have approached me for guidance on this, which I have always offered on my own time and overhead, so your comment is insulting in many ways. Since you are demanding clarification all I can say is that I am better qualified than anybody else in this thread (that is a fact, but you will no doubt read it as a dig) and can therefore comment fully on many areas of the qualification process, if readers are interested in knowing more. However I don't think anyone here is genuinely interested, although as many others will know I am available if anyone would like any help.

Your suggestion that I'm putting others down is wrong - it was in fact a valid observation in response to some of the comments here, many of which are without merit.

As is increasingly common in this forum, the hostility is notable. I don't think I can say any more, or offer anything beyond what I already offer, so I will leave this debate.
 
You've jumped down someone's throat for something they didn't even say, responded with one of the most patronising lines I've ever seen written in relation to the subject of qualifications (regardless of how much help you give to others) and yet somehow everyone else is at fault? Maybe you should consider your own words a little more carefully.

Lindsay D said:
As is increasingly common in this forum, the hostility is notable.
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From what I can see the first hint of hostility was brought to the tread by you. You can't jump in like you did and blame everyone else for disagreeing with you, it doesn't work like that.
 
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Lindsay D said:
all I can say is that I am better qualified than anybody else in this thread (that is a fact, but you will no doubt read it as a dig)
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That's quite a large assumption to make, how do you know there aren't a few ARPS or FRPS knocking around but don't make their "qualifications" known to everyone?
 
KIPAX said:
If I get the lads in the pub to say who is the best sports photographer in the current building.. they say me and award me a pint of bitter for being the best... I can put on my website .."Award Winning Photogrpaher" ..

If I get seen on match of the day pitchside as a player runs past me.. I can say "As seen on TV"

There are a lot opf ways of spinning the truth.. people are so gullible :)
Click to expand...

Exactly this!

I can put my hand on my heart and honestly say that I am a qualified, published photographer with a background in advertising. SOunds impressive, doesn't it? It doesn't mean Jack and certainly doesn't mean that I'm any good, but every word of it is truth. ;)
 
Photography is a very lonely art and full of insecurities. Lindsay is right to bow out of this nonsensical discussion as those (including me) who have no direct (fill in the blanks in your field of wanting to improve) knowledge of the processes or steps needed to become qualified.

I keep wanting to get a qualification only to be put off by the representation of those already qualified by the said bodies, even though they are a minority.

Why do I want a qualification - well, if I was a carpenter I'd want a qualification to ensure I know the basic techniques required to do my job properly. Also, to show that I didn't just walk out of a local camera store and 'felt' ready to photograph (insecurities?)

Also, and more importantly, I want to study my chosen field.

Oh, and in response to the OP - some people are able and feel comfortable blagging, others need something solid before they feel the same.

And, as they say - I'm out.
 
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