Our local show was this weekend just gone, and as per previous years I entered a few photos in the Photography section.
These were my winners for 2013:
While I was pleased with my wins, I must admit to
being a bit bamboozled as to why the judges chose some of the winners that they did.
As Daughter and I were looking over the walls of photos, we would occasionally turn to one another with raised eyebrows and give our “WTF were they thinking?” look. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t envy the judges the task of choosing the winner from the multitude of entries. And I am in no way a trained photographer. No accreditted courses taken, no pieces of paper to say I know what the hell I’m doing. But
I think I’ve read about, practiced and learned enough about photography now to be able to know a good photo when I see one.
Some of the winners were technically poor photos. Not crisp, out of focus, shocking lighting. Basically meh photos. But I could see a common theme with the ones that were chosen as winners. A particular style, I suppose you could say. Which got me thinking about
how subjective photography really is.
I didn’t especially like a lot of the winning photos. In my opinion, there were better photos on the boards.
You know how it is, when a photo touches your emotions and you just appreciate its beauty? These winning photos weren’t doing that for me. Clearly the judges were seeing that beauty. Not me though. Obviously they were not my style? (ask me to verbalize my style and I can’t do it though!)
And while this might sound like a whinge about not winning more firsts, truly it’s not. It’s more of a realization that
photography really is very personal.
And with this realization comes me, phoning the Photography section steward and offering my services next year as judge. Will let you know whether I get the job or not… and whether my emotional perspectives will be enough to know the winner when asked to judge from the multitude of entries.
I’m even going to open myself up to critique here. Your opinions, please.
