A boring photo.
A post last week recommended two photo contests to you. Have you figured out which photos to pick?
Taking part in a photo contest is an educational process. For the same theme, you will be amazed by how many different interpretations to produce a wide array of the final images. You learn from the winners about what make their works tick. If you're the winner, the result could unleash your photographic creativity to another level as your talents and skills are then proven.
Why not walk the scene and shoot from a novel point of view?
Winning a photo contests requires a combination of, or rather a coincidence of, different factors. As far as my experience goes, they are:
1. Be passionate about your life. In other words, as discussed before, photographers have to "feel" the scene before taking a shot. The ability to feel a scene is nourished by your passion in life. Without passion or feelings, photographers can never produce images which really captivate people's eyes and minds.
Can't be more boring than this?
2. Make use of post-processing unless it is not allowed. Here we are talking about only the tweaking to bring out the colours and down the undesirable elements in the shots which were subdued or exaggerated by the actual shooting conditions. However, in most photo contests organised by non-photographers, which unfortunately is usually the case, post-processing of any sort is forbidden. Fact is, digital photography is inseparable from post-processing.
Why not pan the camera and give the image a unique impressionist touch?
3. Most importantly, see your photos through the eye of adjudicators. Imagine yourself to be one of the adjudicators confronted by thousands of entries. As your senses are numbed by the sheer number of images, which photos do you think can really capture your attention? Much like in a debate competition where truth doesn't necessarily triumph, photos being photographically perfect do not surely win in a photo contest. With other things being equal, images which are done with a novel, intriguing and unique touch generally have a higher chance of winning.
Oh, this sucks!
Just because this is the case doesn't mean that you must make the images technically and compositionally complicated. After all, it is how best the images can reflect the theme that counts the most in a contest.
Hey, make use of reflective surfaces to produce a more intriguing image!
Comments
Really interesting post and like the fact that you put in 'bad' photos too. It's funny because before I realized what you were doing I saw the first shot and thought "it's a bit rubbish by Nevin's usual standards ."
Agree with what you said on my blog re taking pics for myself and then making them fit a comp theme. Ones I've entered so far already existed prior to me seeing the comp.