Ah...Sweet Success

I love winning competitions. Sometimes I win local competitions, sometimes online competitions with small entries. No matter how small the competition, I love the feeling that someone has looked at a collection of images and then decided "yes, that's the one I like".

Art is so subjective and when you create it in a vacuum, it gets very easy to start feeling that maybe your work is only appealing to yourself. I love that I can create an image that inspires other photographers or is simply enjoyed by someone other than myself, but unless I win competitions, I stop believing that my photography has value. Definitely a mental weakness on my part - lack of self esteem, a need for validation, lack of confidence or a background that valued academic achievement above artistic creativity? Pick any of them..., but that's how I feel.

Readers will remember (maybe) that last October I braved snow and gales and holidayed in Portknockie on the Banffshire coast, primarily to photograph the Bowfiddle Rock. One of the images I made then has turned out to be quite successful. This 'un in fact. It won a competition at my local camera club and was described by the judge as "how to take a landscape photograph". He was a professional and he couldn't fault it. That made me feel great as I LOVE landscapes. So, I thought, why not see if this does well in other competitions - I entered it in the Scotland From the Roadside Forum monthly competition (a tiny competition) and it won! It gave me more self belief. Last week I entered it into the Guardians travel compeition "Been There", just to see if there was achance it could get into the short list. guess what? That's right, it won!!!!! The prize is a £200 voucher for a high qulaity photoprint site (I sense a canvas coming my way) and it puts me in the a group of 12 that will be judged at the end of the year to choose a winner who will go on a photo safari in South Africa! Very, very exciting - wish me luck! But for me, actually the biggest prize of all was the fact that someone chose my image over all the rest - It makes the early mornings and late evenings worth it!

If you like it too, it's for sale as a limited edition at my sales site PhotoForMyWall.com.

I always like to finish these blog entries with a lesson learned. I guess this one is that you have to be in it to win it. And although I believe that art really is art so long as the creator of it feels it is, it also doesn't hurt to put it "out there" and get a virtual pat on the back.