My Journey through the “Last Photographer Standing” competition (continued…)
Although I started out being part of this competition "to learn", I found myself getting very frustrated that I had not been chosen in the previous two rounds. I know that sounds very arrogant, especially when you consider the quality of the other photographers who are also part of the competition, but it gives you a bit of insight into the competitive (dark) side of me. I knew I could do better, but I realize now that I had lost my original goals for joining the competition so early on, and it took me quite a long time (read "months") before I got back to a realistic view of the world :-)
Unfortunately the title of this round "Irregular or Picturesque" completely floored me, and I am not sure how long I walked around the house numb. In hindsight, and after gaining the experience throughout the year, this reaction was probably inappropriate as with a bit of thought I know that I could have come up with something appropriate. But hindsight always comes too late!
I mulled on this contest for a while and came up a blank, then one evening I saw a sunset from my living room (I lived on the 43rd floor) and thought that it would fit nicely in the "Picturesque" category. I ended up taking about 20-30 shots of the sun set and chose a few potential entries. After reducing the number of photos I finally selected my entry and fell into the same old trap of thinking I could maybe submit an entry that would span both categories - again.
You'd think that after two rounds of trying to do this and failing I would have learned my lesson - but sadly it was not to be. I decided that I would try and my sunset look strange (another meaning of irregular) and so after playing around extensively in Photoshop I came up with the image I submitted.
Contest #3 - Irregular or Picturesque
Manila
Of all my entries I think that this was the worst. The only thing going for it was the adherence to the rules of thirds! Unsurprisingly I did not get any points. Though this time I was not surprised, neither did I feel bad - the entry was truly that bad in my own mind - BUT I had entered something and that was for me an achievement.
Funnily enough this photo was selected by someone to display on their website. It just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder :-)
Next time we will look at the third round of the competition “Artificial or Organic”, where I learned that photography, golf and frogs really do go together...
Please feel free to leave comments or questions about this and I will endeavor to answer them as soon as possible.
Previous Episodes of Last Photographer Standing - A Journey:
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