Competing with the Big Boys

I've recently been entering a few photography competitions. I'm just a snap-happy and very amateur photographer but taking pictures as a keepsake is something I enjoy doing. I've had quite a lot of my photographs made into canvas prints and I have to admit, some of them look almost as good as some professional canvases you would buy in a rather expensive gallery. The other week I spent a long time one day, perusing and scrutinising my photographs in order to choose ten in total to send off for a competition; prizes range from camera equipment to cash, but really, as an amateur photographer it's just a buzz to have your picture recognised as a worthy contender.

However, I have a bit of a gripe with some of the competitions I've been entering. I won't enter a comp if it's for amateur and professional photographers even though I'm sure there will be judges who happily commend photographs taken by amateurs. Therefore, I enter only the ones for amateurs - you could say it gives a better chance of getting through the first stage, but I can't be sure, obviously. Some of the competitions, especially the online ones, tend to display all entries on their websites; some of the comps are judged by votes from the public and others are judged by a panel of judges. I'm not too sure which I prefer if I'm honest, maybe you will have an opinion on that yourselves... Anyway, here's my gripe: because I'm not technical and because I much prefer a photograph to look "natural", i.e. without being airbrushed, colours being changed, a sun suddenly appearing out of nowhere, etc, I've been noticing how many of these amateur photographers fiddle about with their photographs to make them look professional. And after seeing some of them, not that I'm an expert in the judging of photographs department, I would be pretty sure some have been taken by professional photographers, or at least photographers who have a huge amount of knowledge on how to doctor their images. Does this give the snap-happy crew like myself an unfair disadvantage? I honestly don't know the answer to that, but some of the pictures I've been browsing are definitely worthy of being made into professional portfolios, as well as being turned into stunning masterpieces. They are pretty spectacular some of the them, and it does give encouragement to an amateur to continue practising getting that perfect shot. But when it comes to judging, will the edited-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life-photographs win, or will the ones that are just-as-beautiful-because-they're-natural-ones win? I have no idea. Be interesting to find out. I shall keep you posted!

Here's one I entered to give you a feel of my natural amateur entries.

Please take a moment to look at a stunningly beautiful blog composed by a loyal and long-time blogging friend of mine from the USA; her photographs are out of this world. Country Girl.