Winning Pictures From Photo Competitions

Since switching to digital photography in 2003, I have participated in quite a number of photo competitions and had success in winning a couple. It's certainly a great morale booster to win or even place in a highly regarded competition. Wouldn't it be nice to say that you're an "award winning" or "multi award photographer" in the bio, not forgetting about the hundreds/thousands worth of prizes and making a name for yourself !

For me, it began as a test of photographic skill, to pit myself against the others and see if my pictures are award winning standard. From 2006 to 2010, I had a fair share of experience in local competitions. The first victory came as a consolation prize in 2006, which was quite encouraging. The most memorable being a merit prize winner in the Canon Photomarathon in that same year. For the unknown, it's a signature annual event that Canon has held since 2003, where participants compete against hundreds of others in a themed based competition in a day.

To this date, I've won a number of consolations, merits, 2nd and 3rd place prizes, and a few selected for exhibitions, but regretfully have yet to achieve a 1st prize. The best performance in my opinion was having two photos in top 16 of the VISA Moving Images Asia Pacific Photography Competition '08, where the final winners got a chance to photograph the Beijing Olympics. Mine were in the "Stronger" category, which was part of the "Stronger, Higher, Faster" themes of the 2008 games.

Though not as active nowadays, I still submit images when there's one that's interesting or offers great prizes. From what I've observed in local competitions, there's a small pool of photographers who regularly wins whenever they take part. Their names are quite familiar to those in the competition scene and it can be difficult or even disheartening for the "new-comers" knowing they are competing with the best. Nevertheless, you should not be discouraged because lots of people think about entering, but never actually does it, thus giving the regular winners a higher chance of winning.

Submit something and there's a chance of winning something, submit nothing and there's no chance of winning anything, right ?!

Last but not least here are my humble achievements ... (And NO, I'll never add the "award winning photograper" title to myself, unless it's a Pulitzer !)