British Photographic Exhbitions (BPE) exists to encourage photographers to enter exhibitions and recognizes successful entrants via the issue of the Crown Awards photographic distinctions. There are currently 15 Exhibitions which are part of the BPE circuit. I entered my first British Photographic Exhibition at the end of 2016 and was very pleased to get an image accepted on my first attempt. My first accepted image was “Sands of Time”. This was an image I had put together for a Club Set Subjects competition, the theme being Glass. I used my kitchen clock an hour glass ornament and an interesting sky taken at Cleveleys. This was my first successful composite image. I set myself a target of getting to BPE 1 Crown within a year, which needed 25 acceptances. I was really pleased to achieve this target in 11 months with 13 images.
My journey to achieving BPE 2 Crowns. 50 acceptances, was a little quicker and I managed to reach this goal in March 2018. I did this with a further 10 successful images. I continued my journey and in November 2018 I achieved 100 acceptances to gain my BPE 3 Crowns. I was really pleased to have done this within my target of 2 years. I reached my goal by getting a further 13 images accepted. . The thing that surprised me in the journey to this point was that I was most successful with my composite images. I was really pleased to have had 2 Nature images accepted as the standard in this section is always very high. During this second full year of entering exhibitions a few of my images received awards, as follows:
- Across the Plains – Highly Commended in Solihull
- Mrs Magritte – Commended in Basingstoke and Certificate of Merit in Winchester
- Bunch of Sunflowers – Commended in Robin Hood
- Watchful – BPE Ribbon in SRGB
- Stormy Skies Over Castlerigg – Selector’s Award in Frome
At the beginning of 2019 I continued on my BPE journey, the next step being 4 Crowns, requiring a total of 200 acceptances. It took me just under two years to get my first 100 acceptances so I really wanted to get the second hundred in 18 months or less. I was delighted to achieve this goal in just over a year. The journey from 3 to 4 Crowns meant that a further 21 images were accepted. I also achieved 14 awards during 2019 as follows:
- Flower in a Bottle – Commended in Clay Cross
- Derwent Dawn – Commended in Basingstoke, Certificate of Merit in Winchester
- Helbore Triptych – Selector’s Award in Neath and District, Certificate of Merit in Winchester
- Dusky Warbler – Highly Commended in Neath and District
- Out of the Mist – Highly Commended in Rushden
- Keeping Watch – Commended in Robin Hood
- Stormy Skies Over Castlerigg – Certificate of Merit in Winchester
- Out In The Cold – Highly Commended in Shrewsbury
- Callanish Sunrise – Highly Commended in Dingwall
- Yellowstone Bison – Commended in Frome
- Hebridean Wave – Highly Commended in Frome
- Hebridean Tranquility – Highly Commended in Bebington
The first result of 2020 from Solihull Exhibition continued my journey onwards to BPE 5 crowns, requiring a total of 300 acceptances. My tally in 2020 was 72 acceptances from 11 Exhibitions, leaving me needing 28 more acceptances. I had been hoping to get to my 5 crowns by the end of 2020, however four exhibitions were cancelled due to the Corona Virus pandemic, so my journey to BPE5 was a little longer than I had hoped. With the results from Vale of Evesham in March 2021 I passed the number of acceptances required for my 5 crowns. The journey from 4 to 5 Crowns meant that a further 24 images were accepted. I also achieved 11 further awards as follows:
- Hebridean Tranquillity – Commended in Clay Cross and SPS Certificate in Southport
- Hebridean Wave – Commended in Clay Cross, Gold medal in Basingstoke and Selector’s Award in Robin Hood
- Passage of Time – Commended in Basingstoke
- Vestrahorn and Stokksnes Beach – Selector’s Medal in Beyond Group
- Reynisfjara Church Iceland – Selectors 2nd Place in Frome
- Sunrise on Podere Belvedere – Commended in Frome
- Passage of Time – Commended in Clay Cross (2021)
- White Orchid – Selector’s Medal in Vale of Evesham (2021)
To summarise my BPE journey to achieving 5 Crowns; in just over 4 years I entered 63 exhibitions, gained 305 acceptances from 81 different images and achieved 31 awards. with the following 18 images.
After some deliberation I decided to continue to the next step which is Associateship, this requires a further 100 acceptances plus 20 awards from 10 different images. I hoped to achieve this goal in under 2 years. With the first 2 salon results of 2023 from Clay Cross and Southport announced at the end of February I am happy to say that I achieved my goal. In the 23 months since achieving BPE5* I gained a further 143 acceptances and 22 awards from the 11 images shown below.
- Hebridean Tranquillity – Gold Medal in Neath, Certificate of Merit in Winchester and Commended in Vale of Evesham
- White Orchid – Certificate of Merit in Winchester, Commended in Dingwall, Selector’s PAGB Ribbon in Rushden and Selector’s Medal in Southport
- Vestrahorn Reflection – Certificate of Merit in Winchester and Commended in Frome
- Foggy Morning Rydal Water – Commended in Clay Cross, Certificate of Merit in Winchester, Commended in Beyond, PAGB Gold Medal in Shrewsbury, Commended in Dingwall
- Faded Roses – Certificate of Merit in Winchester
- Priestly Stare – Highly Commended in Beyond
- Crossing the Savannah – Commended in Shrewsbury
- Hebridean Wave – Commended in Shrewsbury
- Windswept and Interesting – Highly Commended in Dingwall
- Little Owls – Commended in Clay Cross and Certificate of Merit in Southport
- Morning Rays Chapel Vitaleta – Certificate of Merit in Southport
After achieving my ABPE I took a short break from entering BPEs and embarked on entering international salons but I found that I missed the BPE community and also find the British Exhibitions more of a challenge. So I started to enter BPEs once again and am currently on a slow journey to the BPE Fellowship which only requires a further 100 acceptances but more importantly requires 30 awards from 15 different images. To date I have 115 acceptances but only 12 awards from the 10 images shown below.
To summarise my BPE journey, in the 8 years I have been entering, to date I have received a total of 563 acceptances and 65 awards.