Six regional press photographers have passed their National Certificate Examination after demonstrating high standards of work in last month’s tests.
The May exam saw six out of the eight candidates achieve the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ ‘gold standard’ for press photography.
They were: Catherine Booker, South Wales Argus; Paul Johnson, West Cumberland Times & Star; Laura Jones, Western Gazette; Georgina Mabee, Peterborough Evening Telegraph; Jacob Oakley, Dewsbury Reporter; and Lucy Shaw, Derby Telegraph
Five of the candidates completed their preliminary training at Sheffield College, while Lucy completed hers as a direct entrant at the Derby Telegraph.
Chief examiner Steve Phillips said: “The overall performance of candidates at the May NCE was very good with some excellent work submitted.
“A good standard of video reports were submitted, with an improvement on the optional submissions last year.”
Each candidate had to shoot a video for publication on a news website, which had to be entirely self-contained, and include at least one interview where audio was recorded to a professional standard.
The candidates achieved a 75pc success rate in this part of the exam.
The pass rate for the Practical exam was 100pc, with all candidates making the grade in both the action and feature sections.
The scenario for the action section was a politician being assaulted as he attended a rally, while in the feature section, photographers had to take a photo of a green-fingered young person who had won a gardening competition.
The Portfolio section and Logbook also saw success rates of 100 per cent, while in the Advance Project section, 83 per cent of candidates passed.
Two examples of work submitted by the successful candidates are featured below.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at