A WELL-KNOWN south Essex photographer has spoken of her pride at achieving recognition in her profession after going through months of personal trauma.

Shiralee Swan, who lives on Bells Hill Road on the edge of the Basildon's boundary with Thurrock, worked for many years for the Essex Enquirer series of newspapers.

Following their demise she set up as a full time freelance, specialising in horse photography – combining two of her passions in life.

Now Shiralee has been awarded her Licentiate Qualification by The Societies of Photographers, which brings with it the opportunity to be part of their Mentoring Program. The mentors are a dedicated team of Fellow, Master, and Grand Master Photographers.

To gain the recognition, Shiralee's images were assessed by five of the industry's experienced Judges, all of whom hold Fellowship distinctions and have a minimum of five years of training to assess images.

Shiralee explains why the qualification is so important to her and an achievement of one of her life goals.

She says: "Being someone who suffers from imposter syndrome. setting goals is very important for me, it gives me direction and I love training. Putting time and effort into my personal development means that I can deliver a better service to my clients.

"But I came very close to giving it all up.

"In October 2021 my mother died after a short illness and my world fell apart.

"Being the eldest, I did what every oldest child has to do, telling the family, arranging a funeral, speaking to solicitors, etc.

"I felt that my life could not get worse.

"Well, it could and it did. Just nine days after mummy's funeral, I went to the stable to see my horse Spyda, and go out for a ride. I had owned Spyda from a foal and he was a fit and healthy 23-year-old.

"I was at his stable door when he had a massive heart attack in front of me and died.

The horse portratits that made up Shiralee's portfolio of work.

"For the next six months, I was in a bad place with my mental health. No mum... No horse!

"But my mum was very proud of me for following my passion of horses and photography.

"Picking up my cameras again, photographing clients' horses. I knuckled down and 15 months later I gained my Licentiate with a panel of 20 horse portraits from photo sessions with clients' horses.

I am dedicating my Licentiate Qualification to my mum and Spyda."

There is a slideshow of the photographs on Shiralee's website https://shiraleeswan.co.uk/licentiate/