Photography competitions and awards.

Photography competitions are big thing these days. With the massive amount of digital photographs being taken everyday there seems to be an award up for grabs in just about everything.

Photography competitions everywhere.

Not only are there professional photography competitions like the Aipp’s annual Australian Professional Photography awards, each month camera clubs are holding photography competitions and even airlines and magazines are giving away great prizes and awards for the best or most liked photographs.

Top Gear to end your day.

I’m winding down from a pretty big day, munching on some Baklava and watching an old episode of Top Gear. It’s not a bad episode either with Jeremy testing out a Porsche and Mercedes as a getaway car in a duel against a specialist Irish army firing shots at him while driving. For some reason though I feel inspired to write a blog post about photography competitions and how to win photography awards.

Motives for entering photography competitions.

I have been entering photography competitions for quite some time, and it’s a challenge I really enjoy. Of course the challenge brings on nerves and stress even. So why do I enter competitions and why aspire for photography awards?

I really began seriously entering photography competitions after becoming a professional photographer, so some of initial my motives may be different from what they are now.

I was sure that once I started winning awards (if I was good enough) that my professional career as a photographer would rocket and my Photography Studio would book out like crazy.

A Learning curve.

But after my early experiences I discovered that photography competitions were far more valuable than this.

Some of my first print and image entries were not quite on par, so attending these competitions became a great learning tool. I was blessed with viewing hundreds and even thousands of other entries and coming away with a mindful of ideas and inspiration.

I began looking very carefully at images that were judged successful and the components that made these images stand out.

I then took these back to the drawing board of my own imagery and mastered techniques to lift the standard of my competition photographs.

Those awful judges.

After much success mainly within professional photography competitions (Click here for a list of my most recent awards), I have been sought after for judging opportunities, where I can score other photographers prints and provide the all important feedback required to him the photographer improve their ability and standard of photography.

This was what became the most important thing for me in entering photography competitions: the opportunity to hear feedback on my photographs from someone other than my clients, my kids and my mum.

Photography is objective.

Photography is objective and so too are photography competitions – judging is completed by experienced photographers in certain genres of the art or industry. This means that just because a certain judge doesn’t like the image, the photographer isn’t any good. And just because the image is well received, does not mean that there is room for improvement.

Judges in photography competitions often have their preferred style of work. They often are only experienced in certain fields or techniques. I learned very early on when competing for photography awards that I should never take a judges opinion personally or become discouraged because they didn’t like my photograph. Most of the time is a matter of taste.

Tips and tricks.

When I am judging I am photography competitions and looking to hand out awards. There are a certain few things that I look for personally. There are styles that I prefer, that other judges might not prefer. I will blog about tips and tricks to photography competitions and winning photography awards in another blog very soon. Hopefully it will help you out the next time you enter a photography competition.

By the way the Porsche was shot the least in Top gear episode and the Baklava was very yummy.

Silver award winning print from professional photography awards