Not everyone likes the same style of pictures, thinks the same thought or feels the same emotion when looking at a picture. Pictures you find average might mean a lot to other people, as they trigger a specific reaction based on personal reasons. And pictures you think are awesome, other folks may gloss over easily.
That is not a revelation of course. Diversity is actually one reason that keeps this fun, and somehow unpredictable. The moment you submit some of your work for judging by others, you have to be in for the surprise. Especially for the pictures below, I saw that quite frequently over the last couple of weeks. Referring to the Photocrowd community mentioned in earlier posts, I put them into various competitions. And even the same picture sometimes makes it bottom 10% in one competition (boooooh), and top 10% in another (yeah!!!!). Of course, all are top 10% for me, but that is a very subjective assessment 🙂
What I love about the competitions is seeing how my fellow photographers have done, and drawing a ton of inspiration from the breadth and depth of submissions, and winning shots.
01.
Learn your camera
Make sure you have a good understanding of the technical possibilities of the camera you use. If you decide to spend money on a DSLR or beyond, it would be a shame not to utilize all the possibilities. Smartphones not so much. As their name says – they are smart (but also limited)
02.
Capture a great shot
Practice, practice, practice… try different settings, different lighting, different angles, different focus. Don’t put too much emphasis on reviewing your pictures on the camera display. At home on a proper screen allows for the more objective review, and editing software for making minor edits to your work.
03.
Choose your audience
If you consider submitting your work to competitions of any kind, try as best as possible to match your pictures to what you know about the audience. Learn about the people on the panel and what they like, or what your peers submit. Rather than ‘more of the same’, standing out from the crowd with something a little different is often a great start.
04.
Stay humble 🙂
You do not like everything somebody else shares, and so not everybody will like your work. That is OK! In case you even want to compete, start with aiming for the top 50%, keep checking what people ahead of you do, and aim to take things you see there as inspiration to continue improving. That’s the big benefit, feedback ALWAYS helps us to get better.