Photography of Simon Galbally - f8Vision

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Why enter competitions? It's about not knowing what you don't know!

The judging of photo competitions highlights the most valuable reason for entering such competitions - value added learning.

If for a moment at least, we can put aside our own aspirations and competitive spirit, and focus on what we might learn from comments about all entrants' images and broader comments made, often we can learn important lessons about what makes some images "work" more than others.

While that seems something of a truism, putting our own sensitivities aside and listening to everything the judge has to say about our own images and others', and not just his compliments, we can learn how to better capture what caught our eyes’ attention and what appealed to us to want to capture it. We have all felt that we have captured a wonderful scene that will make a great image, only to be disappointed with the final result - disappointed ourselves or by others' reactions.



So, when we attend competitions, try to ensure you have some paper and a pen to capture the valuable points made. I certainly cannot rely upon having a perfect memory! Hopefully we’ll witness such an excellent judge who communicates valuable messages in a compelling way that we know we will be mindful of in the future.

In fact already I see in my mind why some past images I thought I captured to a high standard just do not work as well as I thought – for me and / or for others who see them.



These are some recent valuable learnings from one excellent judge. In future I will continue to add other judges’ valuable comments to this essay:

1. "Finding something different". His point was disarmingly simple and true - landscapes, seascapes and the like are very popular among photographers - making those genres a very crowded "market" of often excellent images. It is obviously hard to make good photos of this genre stand out and capture judges' and other viewers' attention!

2. "The picture is inconclusive". This comment was in reference to a waterscape with a pier as the main subject and visual tool for leading the eye through the photo. But, while some wondered why the image was not as impressive as it could have been, the point was that it lacked a "point of focus" - the eye was lead nowhere in particular!

3. "We're putting 3 dimensions into 2 dimensions". This is the single most significant issue for all photographers. The lack of a 3rd dimension makes it a challenge to best communicate what it is in the scene that is so compelling. It is here that the mix of all photographic techniques must be used well to make a great image - composition, depth-of-field, light, etc..

4, "Don't sacrifice too much of the bottom of a scene in an attempt to get more of the top in it". While this comment was directed at architectural images, it was equally important for people, landscapes and most other genres. Here his comment explained why at first we find an architectural image captivating only to begin to feel something is missing. His comment: "you need the base because it is what supports the rest of the scene", was so logical. This is what was missing!

5. “Humour is a very difficult subject”. No, he was not simply stating the obvious. The value in this comment is akin to the saying: “The message received may not be the same as the message sent”! In general, we need to consider if what we capture is not only what we are seeing as worthy of capture, but that the key to the image is clear to others. If not, the image may just be another photo of… Subtleties of juxtapositions, for example, require care and skill to help ensure that the image has its desired impact. It is like the written word, if we need to explain it to the reader, ceteris paribus, then it is not well written!



Ultimately, the best photo competitions highlight the most important value of having our work "judged" or reviewed by others - value adding comments that help us better capture what we saw in a way that satisfies us (first) and appeals to others (second)! We should look out for criticisms of our work and then probe the critic’s comments to see what we might learn from them.

Above all, enjoy making images and hearing comments about them – aim to make your images please you first and foremost!