Judging photography competitions is always very challenging and exciting. It provides a great opportunity to gauge the standard of work out there and I’m particularly excited because this competition is aimed at students and is fairly ambiguous with the brief. As such I’m hoping to see fresh and inventive material that holds my attention but still encapsulates the theme.
The category ‘Things’ is obviously open to a lot of interpretation but I think it’s important that the images I see remain on theme and make me feel emotionally connected to it. I’m looking to feel something from the images whatever that ‘Thing’ might be.

For the viewer and as with any good image it has to do two things, one it has to hold their attention for long enough that it can be deemed an interesting image and two it has to connect emotionally. These are always the elements of a successful image.
There are many ways those two ideals can be brought together, it can be that the content is naturally visually interesting or unusual or it can be that the choice of composition, subject and the use of light invokes an emotion that the viewer can relate to. Either one can contribute to a good image but when you have both then it usually results in a great image.

An image just feels right or it feels wrong, however with a competition the photographer is effectively working to a brief, just like I do with advertising clients. With that in mind then the photographer needs to interpret the ‘brief’ correctly or in this case the category ‘Things’ because the category is an influencing factor on the images score from the judges perspective. For example it wouldn’t be my first choice to enter a pure landscape or portrait image into a category ’Things’ unless there was a clever interpretation of the theme that the judge could recognise in the image. And as obvious as that sounds it is important to remember that the judges may be looking for that narrative as well as interest and emotion in the image.

Pay far more attention to understanding and interpreting light than you first think. When I first started my career in photography I was aware of good light and bad light but at that time I was working as a photojournalist and I thought it was all about the ‘moment’. As my career moved on I came to realise the importance of the human emotional response to light. As such it is something that I have spent years trying to perfect and study to improve my own images, and in 25 years as a photographer it is only in the last 10 years that I think I’ve really started to understand light in a way that I’m satisfied.

You have to just go for it, there isn’t really any losers in doing so as the experience of entering and trying to find the perfect image can only be beneficial. Winning an important competition is obviously a huge accolade but it’s entering and shooting that actually teaches you something about yourself.

Enter the Student Awards