COMPETITIONS

It’s funny really because I have enjoyed photography at various levels from an enthusiastic beginner in the mid 1970s, but it wasn’t until I turned professional early in the new millennium and started mixing with fellow professional photographers that I ever considered entering a photographic competition. My motivation back then probably to prove myself in such circles.

UK LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Commended

Just a year or two after its inauguration, I submitted entries to the UK Landscape Photographer of the Year (UK LPOTY). To my surprise, I did well and achieved a Commended Award with my Blackmore Vale image. I was very pleased to have it in the book and the subsequent exhibition. Seeing it projected 8 metres wide onto the National Theatre wall in central London was quite memorable too. It was visible across the River Thames.

LOST APPETITE

For a number of years, I continued to enter the competition and had mixed fortunes with numerous shortlisted entries. I then inexplicably lost the appetite to enter for a while. A few years passed by before I entered again. If I am totally truthful, I probably lost a bit of interest in competition photography in general , preferring to save my energies to ply my trade, so to speak.

JURASSIC COAST AWARD

Highly Commended

I did enter the one-off Jurassic Coast Award Competition and was pleased to receive a Highly Commended for my Chesil Beach Boat image. I remember fondly being interviewed by the BBC weather girl Alina Jenkins for her radio programme about the award. The interview took place at the very spot on the beach where the image was composed. When I heard myself later on Radio Solent’s broadcast I think most of what I said was absolute twaddle. It’s a good memory though and Alina was great.

A FUTURE MUSE

The problem for me is that entering photographic competitions has never really sat well with me and it still doesn’t to this day. The idea that a self expressive art form is no more than a competitive sport just seems totally alien to me. There are other reasons too, but it’s probably a personal and subjective opinion best saved for one of my future muses.

UK LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Many years later, in 2021 I decided to enter the UK LPOTY competition again with a local winter woodland scene and a black & white street image from central London - Urban Life category. ‘Out of the Shadows’. The winter woodland scene was shortlisted in the classic view category and the street image was shortlisted in both the ‘Urban Life’ and the ‘Your View’ categories.

Terrace Coppice, Child Okeford - North Dorset

UK LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Highly Commended

This piqued my interest again, so in 2022 I decided to enter the same image, the only difference being I submitted the original colour version instead.

It was shortlisted again in two categories and this time it received a Highly Commended Award in the Urban Life Category - one of just a small number in the resulting book. It was also chosen and printed for the 6-month travelling exhibition around the country.

I was grateful to the young girl for her timely run through the underpass which proved to be a moment of serendipity for me. I was especially happy that I managed to get her shadow perfectly placed within the light.

FOOTNOTES

Anyone who knows me or has experienced one of my workshops will attest that it is in the craft of photography I get the most satisfaction. If somebody else likes my work, I am pleased, but without wishing to sound ungrateful, ultimately I do it solely for me and the experience of creating.
I am very grateful for the awards, but, as one never to take myself too seriously, I am keen to express that winning ANY award does not define me or my photography.