Tag Archives: competition

Getting into the judges’ minds

Dear all,

If you follow Pics from the wild on FB, you will have noticed that I have been giving it a serious shot to guess the April Wild Eye Nature photography competition winner. You also may have noticed that I ‘failed’ miserably. Only 1 of my guesses was in the top 10 and none of them was in the top 3. I must say that I have seriously considered 5 of the other highly commended images, yet that the remaining 4 would, despite being great shots, never ever be in my top 10 (check out the winning images here). Does this mean the judges have it wrong, NO, does it mean my photographic eye is off, could be, yet I think not, does it mean the other entries sucked, not at all (check out all the April entries here), … It does mean though that your mood and personal experiences influence what you like at a certain point in time. Something that also goes for the judges, again portraying the difficulty in actually knowing what will catch their eye, since after all, that is what a competition is about. And that brings me back to an issue I’ve raised before, when entering shots into a competition, don’t stick to your own opinion, yet dare to go out of your comfort zone and ask for feedback from others, and dare to enter shots you’re not sure abot yourself!

Here’s one of my entries for this month, a potential winner? No idea, personally I like the shot, since I know hyraxes as being prone to disappearing in between the rocks, yet to somebody who has a rock outcrop in the back of his/her garden, inhabited by this species, this might not be special at all, … the only way to find out is by entering it 😉

Canon 350D, Canon 75-300 @ 130 mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 200

Finally and most importatly, I absolutely enjoyed going throught the images and analyzing what I liked and why. On top of that, I’ve been sharing some great images, and that in itself is what it is all about! That being said, if you have some spare time and you are prepared to be inspired, check the work of two clear front runners in the competition so far, and for obvious reasons: Isak Pretorious and Mark Dumbleton whom if I’m not mistaken both havn’t been absent from the top 10 since January.

Have a great week,

Guy

 

 

The excitement of competition

Hi everybody,

For those of you who follow me on FaceBook and/or Twitter, you may have seen that 2 of my entries made it into the finals of the 2012 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, which this year received over 48,000 images from 98 countries. That means that two very intensive sessions of critical review by the judges have been survived, now remaining 1 final selection round.

When I received their message that they were pleased to tell me that at least one of my images has made it through, my heart rate went up and no way I could get back to my daily chores. The feeling this gives is amazing, pumping adrenaline in much the same way racing a fast car does, or going down a hill on your mountain bike, …

I have no idea how many shots make it to the finals (does somebody know?), yet by mid May the winning images will be known. And as has been said many times before, it is impossible to predict what the judges will go for. Going through the portfolio’s of past years definitely helps (I’m trying to get them all), and when selecting your images don’t go for your personal favorites only. On the contrary, get out of your comfort zone and enter some shots of which you’re not at all sure, for whatever reason, …

And oh yeah, to bring the point home that you don’t need the latest equipment to enter these competitions, my 2 shots that made it to the finals were taken with my old 350D and standard kit lenses!

For now, I leave you with 1 of my personal favorites that did not make it. Liking simplicity in a shot and fully realizing it has become close to impossible to surprise with a lion shot, I looked for an image that would portray a lion, blending into the environment, portraying it’s grandeur by ignoring vehicles passing by. This shot is the result of that search: blending in, turning the back, looking of into the distance, ignoring and frustrating the visitors and photographers who are craving for a nice portrait, … yet what they get is ‘The Royal Cold Shoulder’

Canon 350D, Canon 75-300 @ 150 mm, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 1600

Happy Easter and warm regards,

Guy