Why photo contests give me the heebie-jeebies
“hiding from the heat” double ribbon winner: Seven Hills Camera Club & New England Camera Club Council :: © Nancy Szostak Wright
You would think as a photographer, I would love to enter photo contests. Especially because I’m an athlete and I’m competitive.
For years, people have told me I should enter photo contests and I always resisted. Of course, there was the fear of failure. There was the subjectivity factor. I feel like I see things differently, which is an asset. But, the way I see things does not always align with the rules and guidelines that photo contests and judges expect photographers to follow. I am primarily self-taught and am still learning the technical dos and don’ts of photography.
Plus, there’s this little fact that was unknown to naïve self-taught photographer me. Most photos are edited. Wait. What?
Let me go back in time to when I first bought my Nikon camera. I had switched from Minolta because I wanted to make images that looked more professional.
SIDEBAR:
In the world of photography, it’s improper to say you take photos. You do not TAKE photos, you MAKE photos. Anyone can push a button. It’s all the knowledge-based decisions you make to set up and step up your photo that help you create an image.
Do you know that when I go on a photo adventure with other like-minded photographers in my camera club, rarely, if ever, do two of us make the same image. We always comment on that, too. We can be standing side-by-side, shooting the same exact scene, and our end result is different. Why? Because our cameras are different. Our perspective is different. Our settings might be different. Our post-process editing is different. We’re all making our own decisions about equipment, settings, and what we see.
Now, back to my story. I was extremely disheartened when I learned at a Nikon workshop years ago that many, if not all, of the photos that I was seeing on the ginormous presentation screen had been edited and manipulated. What a letdown. My goal as a photographer was to reach the point where my photos were perfect, straight out of camera.
Wake-up call!
So, when it came to contests, I hesitated to enter because I was not interested in editing and manipulating my photos. I figured judges would be looking with a critical eye toward following all the rules.
How about you? When you hear about photo contests, what do you think of?
Beautiful images?
Professional photographers?
Amazing adventures?
Travel?
National Geographic?
Expensive equipment?
You know what I think of? Agita!
I think it’s because I just want to make images to make people happy, including myself. I shot one wedding years ago and I swore I would never do another one. Because I am self-taught and not confident with the technical side of photography, the pressure was way too much for me.
I just want to have fun with photography. Put me outside with the plants and animals and that’s my happy place.
In 2008, I did enter a weneedavacation.com photo contest because I had this “and the shark eats the sun” image from a Cape Cod sunset. Unedited, straight out of camera. It was the kind of contest I was most uncomfortable with, too, based on how many likes the photo received on Facebook. Well, I ended up winning this contest, which was a boost to my confidence.
That was 13 years ago. After that win, I still didn’t enter contests. Until I joined the Seven Hills Camera Club (7HCC) in 2019.
Joining 7HCC has been such a blessing in so many ways. I have learned to do steel wool and crystal ball lightpainting, oil and water macros, nighttime, lightbox, exploding lightbulbs, prismatic bubbles, and most recently, star trails photography.
So, when they were holding an in-club competition in January 2019, I pushed myself to enter. I stepped outside my comfort zone and adjusted my mindset. I was going to use the in-club competitions as learning opportunities.
Sitting through the judging process is another beast altogether. I missed the first couple and found out I had earned ribbons from the post-contest announcement. And let me tell you, what a feeling to know a hired judge was recognizing my work, my talent.
Then I started attending the judging events. I get so uptight. I think it’s because I’m a perfectionist and so self-critical. I question if I have entered the best of my images. How do you choose two images from hundreds of thousands?
I learned quickly the value of hearing the judge’s critiques. And while each judge has his or her own preferences, there is always something to learn from their words of wisdom and what they have learned from their experiences.
So, in the end, while I do not love entering photo contests, I do it to keep myself on a journey of growth in my professional capacity as a photographer. Heebie jeebies? Yes! But worth it to keep upping my game as a photographer.