Rule #1
Don’t expect to win when you enter a photography contest.
As strong an image as you think you may have, the odds are not very good.
It is so subjective.
I know this for a fact because I’ve judged a few contests in my day.
Depending on the caliber of the judges, there is sometimes a tone of jealousy in the voices of the judges especially when they like a picture.
Old piece of firewood–One of my earliest contest wins. This is old as you can see from the date. But, it wasn’t anything to sneer at. The Akron Press Club paid for one whole semester of tuition! For an impoverished foreign student majoring in photojournalism, it meant a lot. I’ve kept it all these years as a reminder to myself that daring to dream is important.
It’s as if they won’t admit that they wish they were the one who took the winning picture.
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Tags: contests
Unless you have darkroom experience, you probably won’t know what a “contact sheet” or “proof sheet” is.
Now that we have digital photography, the term itself is irrelevant.
The “contact sheet” or “proof sheet” is nothing more than a grid of thumbnails of your entire shoot which displays unique numbers underneath each image.
A lot can be learned from it. But you must have the right attitude when you share it with your coach or mentor.
Remember not to get defensive. If you’re asking for help this way, leave the attitude at the door.
As I said previously, if you have enough memory cards, never erase your images in the camera.
I’m not saying save those “masterpieces” of your foot, car trunk or back of your lens cap when you accidentally fired off the shutter.
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Tags: photojournalism, tips, weddings
Shooting into the sun–With my 50 mm lens 1/8000 @ f1.4 ISO 100 and backlighting the flower bloom, you lose a sense of what kind of light was used or even the time of the day. This was early morning around 7:45 am.
The sun came out of hiding finally.
I went by one of my favorite buildings downtown–the Life Arts Center which is one hundred years old, I think.
Those pictures for the story were taken by David Bauman, long-time staff photographer at the paper and a good friend.
His dad Fred was the one who hired me out of college.
Tags: composition
Photographing strangers have always been something I enjoy.
Part of it has to do with the possibility that I can be told to take a hike, or worse, be punched in the face.
It’s not that I like to antagonize people.
It’s a real challenge even if you have the camera handling down.
Quizzical look of a fruit vendor–This guy was curious to see me use a strange-looking camera I’m sure. The Hasselblad with 80mm lens shot wide open at f2.8 produces nice sharp images but it is a slow camera to work. You have to take first a meter-reading with a handheld meter.The 500CM had no built-in meter. Ridiculous considering how much it cost me. The fruit is called lychee.
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