If you were to enter a photo contest, what would be your goal? What would be the most valuable outcome of entering a photo contest? What would you learn from participating?
Those might be questions you have never considered. But if you have been a serious amateur photographer, you have probably considered entering a photo contest. And maybe the photo contests you have considered had prizes for the top photos. Did you enter? If you entered a photo contest, what did you earn, and learn, from the contest?
I had never given any thought to entering a photo contest until I became a member of a photography club. As a member of the Teton Photography Club, I entered the first annual photo contest a little more than a year ago, and I will admit I was kinda disappointed. I didn’t cost me anything to enter, and I didn’t earn a “prize” (I certainly didn’t expect to win). But why was I “disappointed”?
After the contest was complete, I wondered about the “value of a photo contest” for me? What did I expect to achieve and learn from the contest? I certainly did not view the photo contest in a negative way, but I was disappointed. And I wondered how others felt. So, I talked to the peer mentors to try to understand how they felt about our photo club having contests and entering any photo contest.
The peer mentors have all improved their photography, and some have improved dramatically. Quite a few joined the program as skilled photographers and had entered many photo contests. In the past year our club has had two photo contests. A number of the peer mentors have entered the contest and earned honorable mention awards and two have received top awards for Beginner/Intermediate Photographers. These “successful photos” received feedback from the judges but no other photos.
When I asked the peer mentors how they felt about photo contests, I was a bit surprised at their response. A vast majority of the peer mentors were not focused on winning; they were interested in getting feedback about their photos. Some peer mentors had received feedback in the contest, but most did not. We are having a contest this May and the club has decided to give each of the entries feedback about their photos. I think this will encourage more peer mentors to join-in since their goal may be to receive feedback.
A year before the first TPC Photo Contest our Peer Mentor Program (PMP) added a monthly theme to start each meeting. I gave a lot of thought to how I would “label” the new monthly theme and decided not to use the word “contest.” I called these the “Peer Mentor Monthly Theme Challenge” where each peer mentor at the meeting voted on which theme photo they thought was the best.
I mentioned our Theme Challenge in the last blog. Now I want to emphasize the value amateur photographers can gain from such a challenge; and the importance of getting informational feedback not only for your own photo but descriptive information for many other photographs. Everyone doesn’t agree as each of us have a different “eye” for what we prefer in a photo. But when an amateur photographer hears informational feedback for a variety of photos that goes beyond “Beautiful shot” it can really help develop an improving photo-eye.
In the last blog I pointed out how the monthly challenge typically gets the peer mentors out of the house to take photos … even when they feel lazy ;-). When we first introduced the Theme Challenge only the top 3 photo received feedback from the group. The voters explained why they chose a certain photo as their favorite photo (i.e., their “winner”.) But we did not give feedback to the other photos. We moved on to other discussions.
But during the COVID-19 Zoom meetings we only discussed the Monthly Theme Challenge photos, and we had more time. A couple months ago I decided to include feedback for ALL the photo submissions, and it is now clear that the peer mentors really prefer to take time to give feedback about each of the photos without knowing who took the photos. Our monthly themes are not a contest, they are a challenge in which everyone gets informational feedback about the photo they entered, and the entries of their colleagues.
Pleased understand that I am not opposed to Photo Contests. They can be a challenge, especially for advanced photographers and professional photographers. And it is possible for certain photo contests to be educational. Sorry, as a teacher of teachers I will always value events that are educational 🙂
Peer Mentor Creative Blur Challenge
As I mentioned in the last blog, I will typically share what we learned in the monthly peer mentor meeting in this blog. The theme for the Peer Mentor April 2021 Challenge was Creative Blur. We had 14 submissions that were quite diverse with a wide variety of “definitions” for a creative blur. Click here if you are interested in learning about the Creative Blur – this will take you to the PMP – Monthly Theme Articles.
It is interesting that the peer mentor program had this theme challenge two years ago and my reaction is that the photos in 2021 were more creative this year than the past. I wondered why there was more diversity? I can’t compare all the submission from 2019 to 2021, but I can share with you the top 3 from 2019 to all 14 of the 2021 submissions. Have we improved? Here are the top 3 photos from 2019. To look more closely at these photos click one of the photos and use the arrow button to look at all of them. Then click on the “X” in the upper-right corner to return to the complete post.
Last month at our peer mentor meeting I took more time to allow every submission to receive feedback. We have gradually increased the amount of informational feedback that each photo is given at the meeting. At the 2021 April Creative Blur peer mentor meeting we spent a lot of time discussing the 10 photos that were not voted into the final vote. Here are the 10 and each of these photos received at least one vote. Which photos do you think are the best examples for the Creative Blur Challenge? To look more closely at these photos click one of the photos and use the arrow button to look at all of them. Then click on the “X” in the upper-right corner to return to the complete post.
Wrote a response yesterday. Generally not inclined any longer to enter contest which seem rigged to take in money, not offer any criticism of work presented and for me have been a total waste of time. However, if criticism is available it would be a very different matter. In that instance useful criticism allows the photographer to improve or at least expand his or her possibilities.
Michael, It seems to me that often the contests (particularly those on-line) have not been developed to help amateur photographers to improve their photos. When You can “win’ a camera or lens etc. it seems like the goal is to get advertising for the camera/lens/etc. folks. But I have been aware of contests where the money goes to non-profit groups. The key ingredient for me is if folks who submit photos receive any feedback.
Lots of information in this blog, Randy. Thank you. I’ll just jump in and say that, for me, competition is good when there is feedback attached to it. Our photography club has creativity sessions directed toward the monthly theme which is competitive. Photos are submitted for the sessions, and the group has a chance to make comments prior to the photo being submitted the following week for judging. The group meeting among peers has been very helpful, and sometimes its very helpful for the photographer to explain his/her approach to the theme when the photograph in question is being discussed.
Last month our club had a competition on the theme “reflections.” The judge asked for all submissions to be made ten days prior to the club meeting (held on Zoom), and the program for the meeting consisted of the judge giving his evaluation of every photo submitted. This judge even took the time, when evaluating a photo, to make edits as part of his presentation. If cropping might strengthen the photo, for example, he cropped it and presented the new image, then alternated the new with the original. it was very effective.
You asked a number of questions about the blur photos. These images are really beautiful. I think I’m mixing up categories of entries here, but two of these images are striking to me. The perfume bottle on the windowsill is very provocative and conjures up a lot of thoughts about the house, the occupant of the bedroom, and the landscape beyond the window, to name a few.
I was also struck by the photo, Color in the Back Yard. It was an unexpected application of blur to me. The pairing of the beautiful bush with the stark forest beauty is powerful enough, but the blur adds mystery. It’s a lovely image.
In conclusion, I dismissed some of the entries, not because they were not good, but because they were expected. We have learned to expect a blurred image when something is moving, like a flag, running animals, or running people. The images that that appeal to me are those that conjure up thoughts and are technically well done at the same time.
Tom as is always the case, thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog. You have some really valuable ideas in your comment. I like the idea of having members of your club make comment about the photos BEFORE the actual judging. There are so many possibilities if the comments are informational and constructive. And I like the idea of having the photographer explain their approach to the theme …hmmm, good idea for everyone to learn from.
And a special thanks by our peer mentors for your comments about the Creative Blur photos. In life I have come to the realization that specific feedback like yours is one of the most valuable way to improve anything you do from writing a paper in high school, to suggesting a dissertation in graduate school, to how you behave living with a bunch of college buddies … too bad all of us weren’t born with that understanding 😉
Whenever I’ve entered a photo contest, I’ve been left wondering how the judges evaluated the submissions. What were they looking for? Did they have specific criteria or was it more of a visceral response? It would be so valuable if judges explained their choices.
Interesting questions. We have added a little more feedback to our Monthly Themes but I’m learning (from blog readers) how important it is to all of you to hear from others how they “evaluate the submission”. to just say “I like that one best” does help the photographer … AND it probably doesn’t help the amateur “reviewer either. WHY do you you like photo #1 the best? What criteria have you used to make the judgment. Wow Tris, thanks for the ideas for what could be encouraged in our monthly critique of our themes.
I know that the judges we have used have criteria that they will use to eliminate a photo immediately. If a horizon is crooked, if an animal’s eye is not razor sharp, if there is noise or if the photo has been overly saturated — these are the kinds of things that judges have mentioned as disqualifying features. Of course, this is generalized and not always applicable. On the other hand, it’s helpful when the judge lists the things that are appealing in terms of composition, a photo that tells a story, sometimes a photos that “breaks one of the rules” of lighting or composition.
Tom, I like to hear about the items that were appealing, especially what “exactly” tells a story. I think a photo really grabs the attention when it tells a story or creates an emotional response. Thanks for the additional comment.
I just spent two days in a photography workshop focusing on composition, light and pose. Beyond that, the workshop leader emphasized the need for a photo to have an underlying story/message. Technically, the photo can be perfect, but it needs to tell a story.
Sorry for the delay in a comment but I have been on the road. One of these days I’m going to write about the stages I have gone thru in my photography from figuring out my camera et.al, to learning about composition and light, and the third level is telling a story/message. I find this last step to be a challenge that requires deeper involvement while taking photos … becoming one with the environment in landscape photography. With landscape photography, the photo needs to tell a story. Thanks for your comment Tom. The workshop sounds interesting.