^Grand Prize: Fifteen of August Street
Prize: Ricoh GRDII and a trophy
Hong Kong's official dealer for Ricoh, Laikok, has given out the final verdict on the winning entries of its 2nd Ricoh Photo Contest Hong Kong/ Macau. This year the contest was themed on the new faces of Macau.
^First Runner-up: New Face of an Old City through the Lens
Prize: Ricoh CX1 and a trophy
Sometimes, probably much like me, you may wonder in what way the winners manage to win with their photos. Here I have quite a lot of question marks.
^Second Runner-up: Evolution
Prize: Ricoh R10 and a trophy
The clue, comparable to a debate competition, lies in the adjudicators. A local professor who have trained up the debate teams of different universities to win in a matter of consecutive years confided to the audience on a talk that he taught the team members to study the background of the adjudicators and debate in a way relevant to them.
Some Recommendable Honourable Mentions
^The West Bay Bridge / Construction and Reconstruction
A renowed artist-designer in this part of the world whom I am acquainted with said to me that when it came to competitions, what mattered most was the taste of the adjudicators. He himself has won numerous awards in the design industry and once voted the Most Outstanding Young Person of Hong Kong.
The best photos do not always win, that is to say.
^The City of Dreams / In Blossom
So, the pointers from these observations are, firstly, to win a photo contest, know your adjudicators. The most convenient and practical way is through studying the past winning photos of the same competition.
^Beware of Pick-Bucket
The second thing is to make your photo stand out in composition so that the image is visually captivating. Also, you make post-process the photo to tune the colours attractive. The point is to attract the adjudicators to pick your photo among the hundreds of entries.
The third thing is to give your photo a proper and smart title. Surely, your photo will never win if it isn't a good photo and isn't conveying the prescripted theme. Otherwise, these three pointers could maximise the chance of your entry to get into the final in a photo contest.
Before we start off to photograph for a photo contest, paying attention to these pointers will stand us in good stead.
Of course, there are the category of you-never-know finalists. So, the professor and my friend are very right: it is the adjudicator who counts. Some example follows below.
Honourable Mentions in an Intersting Way
^Stick Together in Macau on a Rainy Day
^A White Bird
^A Modern Building in a World Heritage Setting
^The Never Fading Blue Sky
^The Eldery and a Child
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