Tuesday, October 01, 2013

David Wheeler ABIPP ( Mentoring )


I first met David one year ago, he started to assist me to gain experience in wedding photography. He was already running a busy successful business on a part time basis.  It soon became very apparent that David bore all the hallmarks of a potentially amazing photographer.

  His ability to work alongside me and some instances off his own back was a tremendous relief for me, particularly as my previous assistant decided to call it a day after 15 years .  At this time David asked about joining a professional association and going full-time.  I suggested that he should join the British Institute of Professional Photography, initially joining as a qualifying member with a view to gaining his licentiate within 6 months.

  Over the ensuing months David attended my training days as an assistant and also doubling up as a model, in addition to accompanying me on my weddings.  Between the two of us we went through his existing work identifying images that would be suitable for a licentiate.  David already having one wedding where he had 10 pictures, which was a great platform to start from.  Once these 10 images were shortlisted it was a case of then setting out a template of requirements to make up the other 10 images for a successful panel.  

Interestingly David already had developed a strong eye for composition, mainly due to his love for landscape photography.  This was fairly easy to combine with his wedding photography.  During the next 10 weddings that David covered we selected 15 strong wedding portraits exhibiting composition, lighting, expression, pose and finesse.  All creations were cropped for impact , then carefully printed by the master printer Paul Williams of Poole in Dorset.   

Presentation was kept with simplicity in mind, this reflected the clean lines David had expertly produced within his work, no need for special effects in photoshop, neither was there any need to rely upon the mounts to enhance his work, it was already present . 

David presented his panel for assessment at BIPP headquarters on May 7th 2013, the assessors were highly impressed with both the content and quality of his submission, he was duly awarded his Licentiateship, added to this his panel was then deemed to be good enough for Associateship within the BIPP, this was also then awarded a nomination for the Peter Grugeon award, a testament to the effort and craft he has applied to his work.

I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with many fine photographers as a Mentor, all having been highly successful, moving through from L - A - and F. 
David will I am pretty certain already having his sights on the coveted F, not too long before that happens if he continues to be as passionate as he currently is.

kevin wilson photography | wedding photographer | dorset