Ah, the heck with it! This year, I'm in!

480sparky · Jun 8, 2015

Decided to enter the State Fair photo contest this year. FINALLY pared my choices down to the maximum of four.

And those choices are:

Oval%20Stairway%20No%201_9884%20post.jpg

and

(photos that were printed do not have the watermark on them!)

I don't know why I picked all b&w's for this, but that's what it came down to. I'm not hoping for any winning shots, just to get one picked to be IN the show will be enough for me. Only 1 in 5 entries makes it into the show.

Trever1t · Jun 8, 2015

LOVE just LOVE the lines in all 3 awesome images!

oldhippy · Jun 8, 2015

Impressive work. I like how you compose, and control light.. Ed

Raj_55555 · Jun 8, 2015

Wonderful, all of them! And I remember the last one, it's one of my favs of your work. All the best for the competition!

JustJazzie · Jun 8, 2015

OHHH! Fantastic. All of these are wonderful candidates, but I just love the curvature displayed in your first selection. Its not like any other spiral staircase Ive ever laid eyes on. I shall be cheering for that one. Best of luck!

weepete · Jun 9, 2015

First one of the staircase is my favourite.

otherprof · Jun 9, 2015

480sparky said:
Decided to enter the State Fair photo contest this year. FINALLY pared my choices down to the maximum of four.

Damn! Excuse me while I delete a few shots of spiral staircases before anyone sees them . . . All four are beautifully composed and the lighting is just exquisite.

And those choices are:

and

(photos that were printed do not have the watermark on them!)

I don't know why I picked all b&w's for this, but that's what it came down to. I'm not hoping for any winning shots, just to get one picked to be IN the show will be enough for me. Only 1 in 5 entries makes it into the show.

sm4him · Jun 9, 2015

They are all absolutely gorgeous, of course! But my favorite is that spiral staircase.

I hope your state fair does a better, more consistent job of judging than ours does--if so, you're a shoe-in.

I kinda enjoy entering our fair contest, just for fun--tho I find the process of picking the photos excruciating (but it's good practice for selecting photos for exhibits).
But our fair can be REALLY inconsistent in the judging results. Last year was kind of the last straw for me, and I probably won't enter again this year--even though I won ribbons in several categories.
Ours has a bunch of different categories; you can enter up to 8 photos, but only one in each category.

Some of the categories, the judging seems to be appropriate. My "favorite" photo in that category might not have won, but I can at least understand why they picked the ones they did as the winners. But then other categories, it's almost like the judge went out of their way to pick something ridiculously bad, when there were ample very strong entries for that category. The insects category winner was a picture where you could barely find the insect, the photo was not at all well composed and the insect, when you did find it, was out of focus. There was some EXCELLENT work in that category that didn't win.
The worst though, was the Special Effects category. There was some stunning work, and while I had a piece in that category that I considered a reasonable contender, I could easily have some several other pieces winning. But the one they picked was a HORRENDOUSLY done selective-color image of a local theatre sign. There was absolutely not ONE good thing about that image. I thought I took a picture of it just because it was so bad, but I don't seem to find it now. I seriously think the judge must have just picked that category at random. Maybe they were blind.

EDIT: Actually, maybe the Window of Stairs is my favorite. Both the stair photos are my favorite, they take turns.

bribrius · Jun 9, 2015

wish you luck sparky!

Gary A. · Jun 9, 2015

These are all fantastic. But the architectural stuff is above fantastic. If you don't win and if you're not paraded around town on top the shoulders of the judges, while basking in the adoration of cheering crowds ... then you just got FIFA-ed.

Gary A. · Jun 9, 2015

Another inspection ... too much going on in #4, too much OOF and not enough subject impact in #3 ... Nos. 1 & 2 should be in, but they'll pare it down to just #1.

That's my call.

Designer · Jun 9, 2015

Last year's competition was open to B&W exclusively. (Some kind of homage to historical precedent, or some such)

I'm happy you have decided to compete this year, and I'm pulling for you.

I could go with either #1 or #2, and might have to see them printed to decide for sure.

Good luck, 480sparky!