Belinda Richards qualifies with The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers

Belinda submitted her panel for qualification at the 2023 Convention in London, the team of experienced judges awarded the submission a Fellowship Distinction.

Statement of Intent

My name is Belinda Richards, and I am the founder and Creative Director of Frog Dog Studios located in Melbourne, Australia. I began my journey into photography in 2010 by completing a Diploma in Photoimaging which led to a Bachelor in Fine Art at RMIT University. Frog Dog Studios was opened in 2016 when I decided to combine my love of art and my previous experience working with animals.

My business solely focuses on photographing pets. When photographing pets, I aim to combine my skills as a photographic artist with my intuition to create fine art portraits that communicate, connect and emote. Our pets are inherently funny creatures by nature, so one of the traits I concentrate on is capturing humorous moments.

It is my pleasure to present to you my series ‘Who Cut The Cheese?’ featuring 19 dogs and one guilty looking cat. This project was inspired by my love for capturing the unique personalities of my canine clients and my desire to bring humour and delight to the viewer.

I carefully chose each shot to build a narrative and as you view these images, I hope you will experience a sense of amusement and delight as each dog’s look of disgust is revealed, culminating in the cat’s guilty expression when we find out who really did cut the cheese.

Each image was captured in my studio using Profoto D2’s taking advantage of their fast flash duration. I have then used post-production editing to enhance the expressiveness of each dog and to create a cohesive colour palette that complements the humorous tone of the series.

I am submitting this personal project for assessment for the qualification of Fellowship. I believe it shows my creativity and imagination as well as a consistent demonstration of advanced technical skill to meet all of the elements required at this level.

Thank you so much for being here today and for taking the time to assess my panel. I hope you get a good giggle out of my presentation.

Watch the video below or see the full panel here