One of the questions that I get asked about a lot is entering photo competitions. With so many contests, chances to win and options out there, it is easy to spend a lot of time, energy and effort on entering these competitions.
I think that you need to be selective when you enter these for a variety of reasons. From cost to copyright, there are lots of things to consider when making the decision on if the show is even worthwhile. Other considerations include who is the juror or jury panel made up of. What do you get out of it besides the selection processes? What do you need to do if you win?
Once you decide to enter it is important to follow the exact directions you are given, think about the story of the image or images and put your best foot forward. Because most of these are blind reviews, competitions are not a great place to have new work or work that you haven’t gotten feedback to be entered. Just because an image isn’t selected doesn’t mean a damn thing. You often don’t learn why you aren’t selected so these are critique sessions that you can use to improve your work.
Finally, there are a billion reasons you might not be selected. In many cases, your work might be better than what was selected. You have to just let all that go and move forward. It is always great to have our work acknowledged, but just because yours wasn’t this time doesn’t mean a thing, asuming of course, you have taken the time to put out good work. And since you listen to the podcast, I know that is the case. 🙂
Don’t forget to check out my 2017 Workshops including the Perceptive Photographer Workshop focused on the intersection side of photography.