Evaluating Photos for Competition

 

The application form for the Lake County Fair arrived in the mail recently. Technically, it is not due until July 10, but there is a limit on the number of entries so I try to get it in as soon as the application period opens. Since the entries have to be listed on the application, that means I just completed the process of selecting the photographs I will enter this year.

I have been exhibiting photographs at the Lake County Fair since 2015 with varying results. My long tenure at the fair puts me in the advanced division, where I compete against a tough field. Photos can be submitted in 12 subject-matter categories, with one color and one black-and-white photo allowed in each. That means I have the opportunity to submit 24 photos. That sound like a lot, but there are several categories, such as sports, where I often have nothing to enter.

Most of my photos are either landscapes or buildings. So my biggest dilemma comes in the scenic and architecture categories, where I may have to select among several of my favorite photos. Then there are those categories, such as floral and wildlife, where the competition is steep and I don’t expect to win. Still, the cost of entry isn’t based on the number of photographs exhibited, so I have nothing to lose by entering something that may not be competition worthy but doesn’t embarrass me. That’s why I entered the Northern Lights photo at the top of this page in the weather category last year. I entered it because I could, but I didn’t expect it to win anything. Certainly not the blue ribbon it did receive.

Photography is art, and art is in the eye of the beholder or, in this case, the judge. As an example, I also enter photos in the monthly competition held by my camera club, and one recent entry there got a score of 23 and an award in the April competition, a 22 when it went up to the umbrella organization to compete with other clubs, and a 19.5 in the end-of-the-year competition back at the club level. Those numbers probably don’t mean much to you, but a 23 is a good score for someone with my skills and a 19.5 is barely adequate.

The point is that choosing entries based on what a judge might like or even what I think might win is a futile exercise. Every judge is different, and I can’t predict the outcome. So in the end I change the saying to “art is in the eye of the photographer.” I simply choose what I like best.

Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

We’ll see what happens this year.