-
I agree that editing is a large part of what is required to be successful in competitions; but I would like to see more focus put on photographic skill and creativity in camera.
There comes a point when what’s allowed actually impedes your creativity instead of encouraging it. If everything can be done in post production; then what’s the point? Entering this competition is not necessarily making me a better photographer.
On baiting. There are some animals that you would never see by chance let alone photograph without baiting them (take the blue shark for example). I think that baiting should always be disclosed and left to the judges discretion as to whether the baiting of the subject was necessary or appropriate in that particular situation or for the subject in the image that is being assessed. Baiting is a tricky one.
The biggest thing that either encourages or discourages me to enter a competition is not the rules so much, but the judges and the judging process.
Winning a competition to me actually means very little. I see plenty of great images that never go on to win a prize. Depending on the judges on the day and how they feel or in what order they looked at the images, it could have been any number of images that won. That’s worth keeping in mind for those many times when you think you might do well in a comp but you don’t do well at all.
I don’t enter hardly any competitions as I don’t like the process of deciding on which images to enter. The process of self-assessment of your images that takes place before you enter a comp can be challenging and crushing your enthusiasm before you even enter. I’m not sure competitions make better photographers.
I will only enter a competition though if I have huge respect for all judges on the panel.