There was a black and white photo contest tonight at the Rockford Photo Club. I didn't know it was being judged by an outside person. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have put anything in it. When I found out, I got that terrible "I haven't studied for this test, nor have I been in class this whole term" feeling. Anyway, too late. My pics were in for judging.

When the judge was ready, he brought in 2 piles. One was about 3/4 of the pics... the "not going to talk about these." The other 1/4 had the winners on the bottom, and a bunch of, well, what is just below Honorable Mention? Anyhoo, these "also rans" were in no particular order. This one was on top. One of mine. I totally had PTSD symptoms... blood rushes to head, can only hear heartbeat in ears, clutching at chest. (This all goes back to critiques in college. Horrible things, not necessarily constructive, and even if they were, at that time I'm sure they felt like personal attacks.)

He liked the composition, the diagonal leading up to the lighthouse, the tree framing the upper right, the motion of the waves which also push your eye up to the lighthouse.

He was bothered by the little white house in the background, (Shoot, I didn't even notice it) and the bleaching out of one of the sides of the lighthouse.


The next one of mine that came up was this one:

Liked the straight forward subject matter. Good tones, good framing.


















Then this one of mine came up.


Liked the subject (of course, because she's adorable!) Gave suggestions of how to crop it better, which I give you. The other version was not bad, just not all it could be.



(Katherine, I'll give you this print!)


Not that I'm keeping score... but PEOPLE! 3 of my 4 photos made the top 1/4. I didn't take any certificates home, but I am ok with that. I feel I scored a personal victory. As many "creative" types, I often feel that if I do something great that I'm proud of, that that's all there will ever be. That's ALL the creativity I have. I forget that God is the Creator (capital C) and has created everything, and since I am created in His image, I have that creating spirit in me. Just having my pictures talked about with positives and being able to take the negatives and learn from them is a huge step for me.

The pics that won were excellent, of course, taken by guys, who I'm pretty sure, usually win something in this annual contest. I don't begrudge them the win at all. :)

Wondering what my 4th photo was? Here it is. I went outside the box with this one. It's from the Boone County Fair last year. I love it in color, but I thought it looked awesome in B&W too. It's still a winner in my book.