Awards & Competition Season

I have been asked in the recent weeks if I could please do a blog post about Awards and Award competitions.  While I have been a professional photographer for around 9 years now, I only started entering my work in competitions last year in and around the month of January.  I felt it was time to really start putting my work out there and seeing what I could muster up as some feedback for my work.  I had never had my work rated before and I wasn’t really sure what to expect to be totally honest.  I mean, I did well when I posted my work to Facebook (got lots of likes and comments) as well I had my work digitally published numerous times to a few different online publications but how well would my work hold up in real life – being judged by real peers in the photography and arts industry?

Outcomes

Turns out it was really worth my time to start submitting to contests because in the last year (ok – year and two months) I have been awarded 16 different titles/awards/nominations. It all started last January when I took first prize in the NAPCP (National Association of Professional Child Photographers) bi-yearly competition Toddler Category of one of my good friends identical twin sons. They were/are BEAUTIFUL children and they had these AMAZING natural curls. I asked their mom if I could try to get them to sit back to back and no doubt – magic was made. I edited the image in color and switched it to black and white at the last moment and it was awesome. I was so excited – I remember weeping at my computer…yes…weeping. It sounds kinds of funny now but I had really felt I had zero chance to even be mentioned when you consider the talent and amazing images this group of professional creates each year. Honestly – I am in an association with people that I look up to and tried to emulate for years and now had finally reached “good” in my mind and it was really mind blowing. I continued to enter images into other competitions and won a lot of titles – this year especially I am very proud of winning both 1st and 3rd in the Children category of the July NAPCP competition of 2015 and placing 3rd in the annual Shoot and Share competition where over 10,250+ images were entered by photographers all over the world. Its a great feeling to know your work is loved and appreciated.

So…what is the secret?

I wish I knew that answer. Sorry for that great lead up though – it is just something I have never really been able to put my finger on or I would do it every time. An image has to have great qualities and ironically enough, some of my simplest images I have EVER put to contest had very minimal editing and general work put into them (at my level of editing – that is rare) and most of the time the second I take an image I know it will do well in the contest circuit (like A Million Wishes and Little Red Haired Riding Hood). There is an intensity to the image as well as (for most of my work) a whimsical quality that allows the viewer to be transported into a moment of imagination and wanting to be there – right where my subject is – viewing the nighttime stars with a telescope or having the responsibility of individually putting each star in the night sky.

Also I strive for technically perfect images every time I shoot. Are all of them perfect..no. Not really – actually very few are when you consider all photography theory out there but its sometime you should be aiming for even if you don’t currently shoot with that intention. Learn to shoot a good image and it will begin to come naturally so that you can focus on the creativity and plan for the image.

A winning image also must tell a story. To be honest, this concept took me awhile to really process and figure out. We are all story tellers as photographers – no? I think we are, otherwise images are very boring and annoying to waste your time looking at. If there is nothing interesting about it then why bother taking it? What is the story your trying to tell and how will you convey that to the audience? I think figuring that out is the most important part to the competition circuit and then actually finding a way to execute it so it all comes together – something difficult with posed images when your usual subjects are between 2-6 years of age. This is where your own personal skill comes into play.

What competitions are out there an how do I enter?

There are literally thousands of photo contests that a photographer can enter through the course of a year. Entering contests is rarely free (with the exception of Shoot and Share and more local events like the photo contest Costco holds – which isn’t really free…you do need to be a member). Competition organizations are businesses and they are in the business of making money so you have to be prepared to shell out some moola in order to enter. I have paid fee’s from $10USD all the way up to $50 USD to enter per image and you need to pick and choose the images you love and feel have a good chance of winning – otherwise you have to be aware that you may be wasting your money if your looking for a win.

Also there are competitions out there that have specific rules around the images entered. Some allow any image to be entered and others are quite restrictive as far as editing them goes. Some really just want to see the base image and how good your technical skills are vs. a competition that is looking for both your editing skills and your shooting skills so make sure to check the rule contests prior to just submitting your work with your fingers crossed.

In order to find the contest that suit your photography genre the best you should really go to good and type in “xxxxxx photography contest 2016” and see what comes up (the XXXXXX stands for your genre like Child or Nature or Landscape). You can pop over to my award page to see the awards that I have won as well where they are won from if your curious.

Should I or should I not?

This is a question that really only you can answer. I like constructive criticism and I value feedback so this was a no brainer for myself during my decision making process. You have to be able to afford to enter competitions but here is a keen point to consider – can you afford not to? Being an award winning photographer creates a keen marketing aspect to your public and reflections professionalism as well as an ability to create beautiful images for them. Why not try but make sure not to go broke in the mean time. Many competitions also offer judged feedback as part of an option at registration which you could benefit from if they discuss something specific that is an issue throughout your portfolio.

At the end of the the day only you can decide if you are interested in the competition circuit and in this over flooded market of photographers (everywhere that sells DSLR’s at least) it is hard to be recognized for your hard work and efforts. Would I have won any decent award 4 years ago – nope – except maybe the local bench show at the yearly fair. You have to enter with the confidence to win but with the expectation to not because most competitions receive THOUSANDS of entries – the Shoot and Share contest had 25 categories and around a QUARTER of a MILLION entries. That is pretty amazing and you can imagine the competition is stiff so be real and enter the very best work you have ever made. You can’t win the lottery unless you buy a ticket ;).

Suzie
XO