Do any of you compete in print competitions?

[DanOstergren]

I made a friend this year who is a member of a local PPA branch, and he competes in competitions regularly. He inspired me to join OPPA, and next month I'm competing in my very first print competition. I'm really nervous, but also really excited (I've entered two of my favorite images). I don't know what to expect, but I've polished up the images as best I can and am hoping I do well.

Does anyone else compete in these competitions? Do you find that it's a good experience?

 

[snowbear]

I don't, but I am quite sure you will do fine.

 

[480sparky]

My SOP is to not enter contests as most of them are rights grabs. They get tons of good images for very low cost which they can, according to the rules, use them any way they want without compensation to the creator.

 

[gsgary]

No i don't anymore because Natural History wins 80% of the time at our club i'm sick of seeing birds on sticks or Kingfishers diving for fish that have been placed in a bucket just under the water so they can't fail to get a shot of them catching a fish

 

[tirediron]

PPA-style print competitions are definitely worthwhile, especially if you live in a large area. I gave up on mine a number of years ago because it was actually a very small satellite group, and the competitions had become just sort of a "Oh, it's Bill's turn to win now.". That said, when I go over to Vancouver and for the big PPOC conference, the print competition there is excellent. A VERY high level of work, and very, very high judging standards. If you want to "learn by critique" it's absolutely the best way!

 

[DanOstergren]

PPA-style print competitions are definitely worthwhile, especially if you live in a large area. I gave up on mine a number of years ago because it was actually a very small satellite group, and the competitions had become just sort of a "Oh, it's Bill's turn to win now.". That said, when I go over to Vancouver and for the big PPOC conference, the print competition there is excellent. A VERY high level of work, and very, very high judging standards. If you want to "learn by critique" it's absolutely the best way!

I'm really excited. The OPPA (Oregon Professional Photographer's Association) is pretty big, and I'm really looking forward to getting critiques from the judges. I'm hoping to learn a lot from the critiques i receive, but also from seeing how they critique other people's photos as well. And I think it's going to be really fun; I've never been around this many other photographers in my life.

 

[DanOstergren]

My SOP is to not enter contests as most of them are rights grabs. They get tons of good images for very low cost which they can, according to the rules, use them any way they want without compensation to the creator.

I'm sorry to hear that. I haven't been able to find anything in the OPPA rules that gives them that sort of control over my images, so I'm hoping all will be fine.

 

[DanOstergren]

No i don't anymore because Natural History wins 80% of the time at our club i'm sick of seeing birds on sticks or Kingfishers diving for fish that have been placed in a bucket just under the water so they can't fail to get a shot of them catching a fish

That would get boring really quick!

 

[rexbobcat]

I do not. The PPA has a very specific idea of what makes a good image at least in the area I was in where many photographers entered. A lot of the images from the state competition in TX were basically creative Olan Mills-esque studio portraits. Lots of heavy handed post-processing, etc...If you do photojournalism, editorial portraiture, etc...You'd probably be lambasted with criticism.

Most of the images I've seen are technically proficient but emotionally sterile. Even with the images that have a lofty message; they're too meticulously crafted to really evoke anything.

Now, and this is just my opinion, but the PPA (from what I have gathered) has basically distilled photography down to a certain set of standards for what makes a "good" image. It goes beyond the general rules of aesthetics.

While this gives a good baseline for hopeful professionals to follow in order to begin producing images worthy of being bought by clients, it is, in many ways, the anti-thesis of what I would consider great photography.

It feels like the standardized tests I took in high school.

I mean, here's the cover of last year's gallery book: http://texasprophotomagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/GalleryCvr14.jpg

Look at that sexy, sexy digital fog and green screen.

Maybe the Oregon PPA is different.

 

[480sparky]

My SOP is to not enter contests as most of them are rights grabs. They get tons of good images for very low cost which they can, according to the rules, use them any way they want without compensation to the creator.

I'm sorry to hear that. I haven't been able to find anything in the OPPA rules that gives them that sort of control over my images, so I'm hoping all will be fine.

I wasn't speaking to that contest in particular. I was referring to contests in general.