Kieth Cooper wrote: >As someone who has only been making the majority of their living through >photography relatively recently I would welcome opinions on the merits (or >otherwise) of joining any of the various professional organisations for >photographers in the UK (probably best off list unless directly related to >the digital side of things).
I am still a member of the BIPP & have been for 30 years, since an Associateship came with having passed my Finals at college (Ealing School of Photography, if anyone is interested). I am not sure that the subscriptions (GBP140 last year) have been worth it for me but for more active, gregarious & less curmudgeonly members could well be. The best thing - and this is where the digital content comes in - has been that it was one of the very useful BIPP seminars which showed me what Photoshop could do, how to put together a useful website, and how to get a domain name & email address all years ago when these were less ubiquitous than now. The monthly glossy magazine shows me what other professional photographers are doing, & the equipment they are using, and the best bit is a monthly column by John Henshall, who was one of the top BBCTV stills photographer using dig when I was still not trusting anything smaller than 5x4. His column showed me how to put up web gallery pages when they were almost unknown and has showed how digital imaging can work in practice, as well as reviewing many new cameras and dig backs as a result of his travels to trade shows all over the world. His website is at http://www.epi-centre.com/ & may be worth a visit. I have also had several jobs from the online Directory of Photographers. Having said all that - I still may not sign up if I had to make the decision now. That has to be your choice. James King-Holmes Www.kingholmes.com =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
