It hasn't been mentioned in this thread so far, but IMHO the most useful thing anyone thinking of L, A or F can do is to attend the RPS Celebration of Distinctions. It's this Sat in Bath, but is held every year.
The people who set the standards for admission get up and talk about lots of successful panels from last year.
I believe the show travels to other parts of the UK, but Bath is the biggest and is the one key people will definitely be presenting at.
I attended when I was thinking about my A, and it is only with a healthy dose of hindsight that I now realise how important (and useful) that day was.
I'm attending this Sat to get a feel for whether my cave photography project is suitable materiel for F and how much I need to raise my game before putting a panel together.
I'm not doing this project to put a panel together, but it would be wonderful if I can.
It's a ridiculously tough environment to photograph, which largely explains why there are only a handful of cave photographers in the UK and why so few cave images appear in the photographic community.
For example, last night it took nearly four hours of demanding physical activity and a healthy dose of adrenaline to set up and take just two shots at separate locations - this is one of the images and I'm dead chuffed with it at the mo.
Unexpectedly, I've been bitten by the caving bug and I wish I'd discovered it years ago.
Which brings me back on topic...
One of the messages I came away with from Celebration of Distinctions was being passionate about the subject matter; it unconsciously comes through in the images.
I didn't appreciate the importance of that comment. If I was re-doing my A then I'd approach the whole thing differently. At the time I was in love with the Inner Hebrides, but my panel was a mix of landscapes from all over the UK. My panel lacked purpose and emotion. If I'd tried to capture the essence of remote Scottish islands during the Winter months I believe my panel would have been far stronger.
I had stopped thinking about F, largely because I didn't have something to bind a set of images together. But with my new-found love for cave photography I've got something that is easy for me to enthuse about.
Sorry for the ramble, hope it makes sense.
Oh - and treat yourself to that lens - you've earned it!