Competition Time

Been a few months since I have written a blog – things have been crazy with work and my home life!

Best thing is though I have been able to keep taking photos – after all that’s what keeps me sane!

The other thing which has been happening is I have entered competitions, specifically

The annual camera club competition

There were 6 images submitted to this one, prints and digital across a range of subjects. I did well, especially with the quality of the competition, winning the Black and White Print class with my Alchemy in Progress image and getting a Commended in the Open Print. I walked away with a big silver cup to keep for the year.

This next year I am looking forward to entering more of the club’s competitions and seeing if I can up the success rate from this year!

Another local club’s 120 year anniversary competition

For me the reflection of the windmill at Windmill Hill shows Swindon's agricultural and rural surroundings and heritage sitting alongside its modern and it’s modern, technological future

The Swindon Photographic Society are celebrating their 120 year anniversary and had an open competition about What Swindon Means to You. I entered this image and I was blown away when I won around £500 of prizes, including a year’s free membership to the club - so two evenings out a week at camera club from September!

Online competitions

These are around all the time from local attractions, photo magazines, online forums, shops etc – often with minimal effort (other than taking the picture!). I have lost count how many I have entered this year, most have been purely speculative and I have been unsuccessful. However, I view this as a numbers game – if I keep improving my images and keep entering I will be successful in at least some of them; so I’m holding out hope over the next year.

The great thing is online competitions is they are really easy to enter, however, the big down side is there is no feedback to help you improve - you either win or you don’t and often you don’t even get to see the winning image.

The most important thing I have found through the feedback across all the competitions is it is not necessarily the best image that wins but the one that best meets the brief … in the eyes of the judge.

The 120 year anniversary competition was a great example of this. My image wasn’t the best one submitted, I’ll freely admit that, but the judge was looking for an image where it told the same story as the words which were asked for with the image. Some had no words – and the judge discounted them for not meeting the brief, of those that did he was looking for something that not only focused on the past but also the future. My entry ticked all the judge’s boxes.

The other thing I would say is that don’t feel excluded because of the camera you are using. Over the last year I have 3 wins and 2 commended images – only one of which was taken on my DSLR, the rest have been on the iPhone … back to the best camera being the one you have with you at the time!

Overall, I’m going to keep entering competitions as a great way to get feedback on my images and learn how to improve – if an opportunity presents itself to win a prize I would like then I will enter … wouldn’t you?

Go on … you know you want to!

Happy shooting!!