Last year, I decided it would be a goal of mine to become a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) by the time I was 30...that would give me nearly two years to work toward this goal. It had been a goal for the past four years or so, from the time I first heard about it through the Professional Photographers of America (PPA). But it was in mid-2013 that I actually gave myself a deadline.

I ordered the 11th edition of "Photography" by Barbara London, John Upton and Jim Stone back in the fall and started reading a bit. I downloaded an outline for the exam, key terms to study and took a practice exam. Shortly after though, I got busy with other aspects of my photography (like trying to run a business) and kind of forgot about studying for a while. 

Toward the end of January, after some convincing from the Professional Photographers Guild of Houston (PPGH), I decided on a whim to apply to take the next CPP exam offered in Houston...just a little less than three weeks away. It was cram time then. I declared my candidacy, paid my fee and signed up for the exam.

Now, for the hard part...studying. I hadn't studied for anything in approximately seven years (final exams for my last semester of college). I read through the parts of photography book that I felt I needed the most help with, wrote out definitions of key terms, memorized the color wheel and a few other types of charts and took more practice tests. 

On February 11, I woke up early and drove into Houston for my exam. I felt pretty confident going into the test. I'm not a cocky person by any means. If anything, I tend to be unsure of myself. But I really felt like I knew the material.

The test was actually a lot harder than expected. People had warned me it was tricky, but how do you prepare for that? Tricky, indeed. Some of the questions were those where you have to choose the "best" answer, not the right one. To me, it seemed like there were two right answers. Then, some of the questions had extra information that seemed irrelevant to the question. I think they just want to throw you off and confuse you. Who knows though? Maybe they were relevant and I just completely missed the mark on that one.

On February 14, I received a wonderful little email that made my Valentine's Day! I passed! And I made a pretty decent score, if I do say so myself.

But, to earn the CPP title, you must also pass an image review, so I'm only halfway there.

Now that I've chatted on and on about a CPP, you're probably wondering what this certification is all about. I mean you probably know lots and lots of photographers, but may never have met a Certified Professional Photographer.

The certification process is used in photography much like it is in other fields of work. It's there to set a standard at which photographers "operate." When I declared candidacy for the CPP Exam, I had to agree and pledge to the following:
• Maintain exemplary standards of professional conduct.
• Actively model and encourage others to integrate professionalism and ethics in the practice of business and to encourage all people qualified to pursue the goal of Certification.
• Strive to continuously advance my knowledge and achieve higher levels of excellence.
• Maintain the integrity and proprietary nature of the Certification Examination and agree not to divulge the individual questions that are used on the Examination.

Unfortunately, certification is not required for someone to say they are a professional photographer. Don't get me wrong. There are some incredible photographers out there who aren't certified. A lot these photographers attended art school, have a degree in fine arts or photography, or have sought out other sources of education, such as those offered through the PPA and have applied that knowledge to their photography. On the other hand, there are many people who got a camera from Best Buy last Christmas, created a Facebook page and are now photographers, because someone told them they took nice photos. This blog wasn't written to judge who is or isn't a "real" photographer. I mean, we all have to start somewhere, right? But I guarantee when you hire a CPP, you aren't getting someone who jumped into the business yesterday. You are hiring someone who knows the technical side of photography, in addition to having a portfolio to prove they can put their knowledge to work.

Back to earning those three little, but very important letters. To earn the CPP title, a photographer must declare candidacy and pass an exam and image review within two years. If you don't pass, you have to re-apply. The exam covers all aspects of photography, including camera equipment, composition and design, exposure and metering, lighting, image capture and output, and post production. If the photographer passes this exam, he/she then has to pass an image submission. The photographer must submit 15 images. These images must fit a set of guidelines that measure the technical proficiency of the photographer and should be representative of paid client work in the last two years. None of the images can have the same subjects (models/clients). And once you have passed, you have to renew your certification every three years, proving that you have earned a certain amount of continuing education credits during the past three years.

So, the next step in my CPP process will be to get my images submitted and reviewed. They are accepting images again at the beginning of April, so that will be my goal. Hopefully, my fellow photographers at the PPGH will help me select the best images I have in my portfolio so I can make a nice presentation. 

Stay tuned for an updated blog, hopefully when I've added a few extra letters to my name!

 

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