Putting yourself out there

One of the things me taking my photography more seriously has been sharing my images more widely rather than just keeping them in the friends and family – I’m sure a hang over from when I shot on film and waited for the prints to come back.

But why would I want to share my images with others?

The simple answer is to get feedback and improve my photography.

So over the last year I have put myself out there and in a number of different places – but what have I found?

Social Media

I have been using 500px, an online photographer’s forum, for a few years but have now also started using Instagram. Both have been good for both gaining inspiration and seeing which of your images are liked by the community. The down sides of this are responses can be variable depending when you post the images and if it isn’t liked what is the reason? Poor image, poor timing – you just don’t know so it takes longer to improve as it becomes trial and error.

Press/Online Competitions

This has been a great opportunity as entering your images rarely costs anything. They are available from all sorts of sources:

• Online forums – I have used Photocrowd, which is a large online forum that runs regular competitions across a whole range of subjects. Sometimes there are prizes, equally they can be competitions that are run by members of the community for fun.

• Local press and tourist will often run competitions taking images from the local area and normally will have a prize involved, anything from camera gear to a short break

• Photography magazines and websites run regular competitions, some for generating discussion aroundtrying out techniques published in the magazines, others in conjunction with camera companies

• Camera stores will often also run competitions to get images for advertising campaigns and

• They are great fun to enter and have the benefits of putting your name out there as well as giving the potential to win a prize, anything from a mini tripod to a new camera. I have had a couple of successes with my biggest win to data a Manfrotocamera bag from a  Practical Photography competition.

Camera Club Competitions

For me this has been the most beneficial in terms of growing my skills.

The camera club I joined holds around 5 competitions a year, all judged by a qualified judge. Whilst there is a certain amount of “personal taste” in terms of the decisions they make one thing that does happen is that as they are judging the image they are talking you through their thought processes. And if you listen, not just to the feedback from your image but for others as well, this gives you the ability to adjust and improve.

An example of the feedback:

The image Could be cropped to a letter box format however, there is no real need as likes the tones and move from different blues. A really nice image

The highlights on the front and rear of the bonnet are distracting but like the focus on the detail

So overall, it is good to put your images out there to see what others think.

In future, my focus will be on those where I get feedback (camera club competitions) mainly for my personal development, however I will keep posting in those other areas as a filler and to test the water with my images.

Go ahead take the plunge as well…