Confessions of a Competition Addict

Thursday June 11th saw Robert Millin MFIAP, EFIAP/d2, FBPE, MPSA, SPSA, DPAGB, GPU Hermes give his talk ‘Confessions of a Competition Addict’ to Keyworth Camera Club via Zoom. One of the advantages of Lockdown is that we are able to invite speakers to KCC from much further afield than we would normally be able to had we still been meeting in our club room.

Robert’s talk started with his very first attempts at club competition photography and even though he didn’t do very well, embarrassingly bad according to his comments, it spurred him on to take better images and the competition bug really caught hold – the letters after his name attesting to his tremendous achievements. 

Robert showed images from a number of genres, stating that sport and travel are his favourite subjects to photograph. Other types that graced our screens included nature, people, scapes, fine-art nudes and creative works. Robert’s commentary was informative and inspirational. His patter often having us grinning and laughing as he explained the stories behind some of his terrific images.

The evening finished with a closer look at the BPE (British Photographic Exhibitions) qualifications and what you need to do to attain them. This was followed by a similar look at the F.I.A.P. (International Federation of Photographic Art) accreditations and what you have to achieve to meet their criteria. Both these sections supported by many outstanding examples of the work that helped Robert rise to the top of the tree in both these organizations.

There were many excellent tips to help us improve our photography such as trying to make your pictures tell a story and try to interact with people you’d like to photograph as you’ll get better results if you can do so. Try to photograph your subjects against clean (unfussy) backgrounds and choose your taking position carefully for greater impact. And, if following the competition trail, make sure you read the rules as they often differ per competition/category.

We would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Robert for an absolutely superb evening that will have certainly encouraged many of our members to have a go at subjects they perhaps haven’t considered trying before.