Ticked off right now... Photo club judging...

[Sherlock77]

I'm a long-time member of my current photography club, I rarely get a good score out of them, rarely get a ribbon... A couple of years back I suggested a new "urban" theme for one of the competitions, which they started this year... It is a style and/or place for much of my photography...

Tonight was the night to present the results, within my group my two photos came up fairly quickly, clearly not winning a ribbon, and with what turned out to be one of the lowest scores of the evening! As I watched far inferior photos get higher scores, one ribbon winning photo (in a different group) was a rather average street scene, many photos didn't appear to be very well thought out and got much higher scores! Other over-processed photos that were otherwise rather average also got higher scores

That has always been my struggle, as a loyal club member, now on the executive... That they don't get my photography at all and I rarely get a ribbon, while I watch the club super stars rack up gazillions of ribbons, one guy in particular is a rather pompous British guy who I'll never match up with, always getting tons of ribbons...

I did enter this photo, maybe in retrospect not my best work... But I was careful in how I took it, the idea of nature withing a city setting...

This one I definitely feel should have scored much higher, the dramatic shadows on a bright winter day, I observed the people in front of me, their movement, etc... It was carefully crafted, I can attest to that... And this photo was very well received on my Instagram account...

Right now I'm embarrassed for myself, and definitely think I got the shaft, even angry about it... I try to have a thick skin about these things, but it's hard sometimes...

To be clear there were some photos that deserved a high score, it's not just simply not getting a ribbon but knowing that I got such low scores, I would be happy enough if I didn't get a ribbon but got a high score...

 

[Mia]

You do portraits extremely well. Have you thought about taking a photography course at a local university? You already know how to shoot and take photographs, that's not what it would be about. Photography courses I've taken, consider photographers and their skills, and why they became so well thought of. Think you should look at some of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century and why they became such. Their subjects, their ideas, why they took the photos in the first place. Here's a place to start:

henri cartier-bresson photos - Google Search
Henri-Cartier Bresson and the decisive moment.

ansel adams photos - Google Search
Ansel Adams

walker evans photos - Google Search
Walker Evans

diane arbus photos - Google Search
Diane Arbus

Elliott Erwitt photos - Google Search
Elliot Erwitt

André Kertész photos - Google Search
André Kertész

garry winogrand photography - Google Search
Gary Winogrand

 

[Judge]

First and foremost it would seem that you must grapple with that four-letter word that can give a great deal of us a lot of grief. Myself included.

- "CLUB".

With no guarantee of objectivity towards the judging. Where it may or may not reflect an inner social clique for which you may be on the outside looking in and just don't know it. Where apart from any social and personality considerations, this inner clique may simply have a different uptake in composition than you do.

Where your only course of action may involve altering your own style to make your photographs competitive. Which of course conflicts with the whole process of being creative, IMO. Been there, done that and eventually elected to simply leave the club.

For what it's worth, I agree with @Mia. That your pictures that focus primarily on people rather than things are what stand out to me. In any event, manifestations of art remains horribly subjective.

 

[Pats]

I loved the photos, especially the second. I agree with @Judge. Sometimes it's politics. My granddaughter in first grade got second place in "Young Authors award". The winner was not nearly as good, but just happens that her mother just got teacher of the year award. Coincidence, I doubt. But it's whatever it is. And many of the winners have edited to a point where it's not even the actual photo they took. I'm old school in photography, too - where the skill is in the photo you take, not the changed made afterward.
Your work does tell stories.

 

[Sherlock77]

First and foremost it would seem that you must grapple with that four-letter word that can give a great deal of us a lot of grief. Myself included.

- "CLUB".

With no guarantee of objectivity towards the judging. Where it may or may not reflect an inner social clique for which you may be on the outside looking in and just don't know it. Where apart from any social and personality considerations, this inner clique may simply have a different uptake in composition than you do.

Where your only course of action may involve altering your own style to make your photographs competitive. Which of course conflicts with the whole process of being creative, IMO. Been there, done that and eventually elected to simply leave the club.

For what it's worth, I agree with @Mia. That your pictures that focus primarily on people rather than things are what stand out to me. In any event, manifestations of art remains horribly subjective.

The second is about people... To me at least.. The shadows are interesting on their own but I only took the photo because there were three different groups of people passing through it...

 

[Judge]

The second is about people... To me at least.. The shadows are interesting on their own but I only took the photo because there were three different groups of people passing through it...

I gave that some thought, but felt they were too understated given the perspective presented in the photo.

 

[Sherlock77]

To shift gears slightly (I think I'm over my rant, maybe...)

The more I do photography, I know I'm most attracted to the idea of...

How people interact with the world around them

That could mean urban scenes for sure, but I also rarely photograph natural scenes unless there is some human element within it, I will admire the scene but don't feel compelled to take a photo of it unless I find something of humanity within it, it can be people or any other man made object... Which is exactly why I took the first photo of the urban marsh the way I did...