You can see the surprise on my face in the image above as I was named by the Guild of Photographers: ‘Runner up Newborn Photographer of the Year 2018’ as well as achieving 2 other awards at the Guild of Photographers Awards Ceremony last weekend.
I’m absolutely honoured to receive this amazing award; the news hasn’t quite sunk in yet! I’ve only been a professional photographer for 2 years and to win something like this was beyond my wildest dreams. When my little boy was diagnosed with Achondroplasia at 8 months old 2 years ago, I knew I’d never be able to continue with my career as a teacher so needed a more flexible alternative. It’s amazing how these things happen – everything happens for a reason! I’ve found my ‘thing’ and I love what I do. There’s no better job than meeting precious newborn clients and creating beautiful pieces of art that parents will treasure forever!
The Guild is the highly regarded national photographic body whose members are dedicated to enhancing their skills in the art, craft and profession of photography. It runs an Image of the Month Competition, and received around 13,000 entries during 2018, from photographers in the UK and overseas!
Each image is scored, and the scores from the year are then totalled to determine who wins one of the Guild’s Top 10 Photographer awards / becomes the Guild’s Photographer of the Year. This is clearly a very demanding year long process! I am absolutely honoured to become the Runner-Up Photographer of the Year in the Newborn and Maternity genre – a remarkable achievement when you consider the number and standard of the entries.
My Award was presented at the Guild’s Awards night at Crewe Hall earlier this week. Steve Thirsk (Director of the Guild) said – He is “both proud and delighted that Lisa has achieved this recognition after 12 months of submitting the highest quality images. The Guild has very demanding standards when judging photographic competitions. The judging is undertaken by a panel of internationally recognised experts from a variety of photographic backgrounds, so Lisa quite rightly should be delighted with her extraordinary achievement’.
I was also lucky enough to achieve the Photographer’s Bar in two categories – Newborn and Maternity and also Child, Family and Adult Portraiture. This shows that I consistently create the highest quality images in these two genres.
I am totally committed to achieving the highest standards of professionalism and my journey of professional development continues in 2 weeks time as I will present a panel of images to the Guild of Photographers judges at their headquarters in Stoke on Trent to see if I can achieve Craftsman status which is an incredibly challenging and prestigious qualification to hold.
To learn more about my newborn photography click here.