I’m safely back home from the 2011 Canon AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards and I’ve got a bit more bling to add to the gallery. Picked up a Silver Award for the image below in the portrait section of the competition.
I feel a couple of my other images definitely deserved awards too with high scores from some judges but others just didn’t like what they saw. Another day, another judging panel or even if the judge is feeling a little hungry can make all the difference.
So what did I learn? These days great photos just don’t get awards, they get commended as being ‘highly professional in standard but not to awards level’. Images need to have extra bits of extreme Photoshopping, quirkiness, a bit of shock, more Photoshop, they need to be constructed rather than captured, some more Photoshop, printed on particular art papers, maybe a bit of cowbell, they need to be trendy and did I mention a squeeze in Photoshop.
I don’t chase trends or shoot just to win awards so found it quite ironic that two images of mine from 2006 that scored 74 and 76 back then, probably would have won awards this year. Images almost identical to my old shots, easily picked up awards. What can I say, I’m ahead of my time (and no, I’m not showing off the shots as it would be unfair to do that to the other photographers).
All in all, I’m a little bruised and battered. I still feel extremely proud of my photos, and a touch ripped off. I must admit one of the images looked a bit blown out under the judging lights so maybe it was printed a little ‘hot’ although I checked it under similar lighting conditions before entering it.
Oh well, next year.
Most photographers don’t show off their losing images, but I do like mine so here they are in all their highly professional but not award winning glory:
