Photo Competitions for Learning

As someone who thinks about taking photos much more often than I actually take photos, I find myself interested in the idea of photography competitions. Not for the reasons of glory, or great prizes but for the aspect not always thought of, the learning.

Taking photos for a competition gives you some goal to focus your attention on. Take for instance the Staples Hometown View contest I recently posted about, where you are asked to "Upload a picture highlighting what you love about your hometown." This has a broad range, but it still starts to funnel your focus towards something. Many, right away will begin to think about particular topics that they might shoot for the contest. I thought of a few, and instantly started to think about how I would compose my shot, what time of day would add the most to my composition and what conditions would be perfect. This sort of behavior is essential to learning about anything. It's called thinking.

However, too much thinking can also lead to bad shots. There is some sort of balance that as an amateur I have yet to figure out. Yesterday, for instance, I attended a technical talk on software patents and brought my camera. The conditions weren't perfect, but I had planned out how to take the photo I wanted of the speaker on stage. Waiting for just the right moment, I was rushed to focus, compose and shoot. My exposure was nearly on point, but my focus was off and the photo didn't turn out so well. And, because I was picky about the shot and over thought about everything, I only had one chance and I blew it.

My experience yesterday taught me to be more aggressive while taking photos, but still plan for my shots. If I had fired off 100 shots yesterday, not only would it have been annoying for members of the audience and the speaker, I would have missed the reason I was there to begin with. But, had I been a bit more aggressive and readapted my plan as conditions changed, I would have been able to obtain a few more shots while still being a good audience member. They may have suffered the same "badness," but nevertheless I could have made sure to fix what didn't work before.

Unless you are an expert photographer, you are not going to be able to see the outcome of all situations. Likewise, in order to become an expert you have to think about what the outcome will be for all of the situations you photograph. This is because in order to learn from your photography, you must compare your perceived results with your actual results. Trial and error so to speak, but without planning you'll have way too many perceived results to maintain and to analyze afterwards.

So take a look at Photography Competitions, a site where you can see a number of current contests around the internet and plan to take photos for them. Plan your shots before you pick up your camera and adjust your composition and your original thoughts on location a few times. Does your original idea still make sense now that you are at the location? Look through the viewfinder and think about your composition before firing the shot. And of course, after you take the shots go back and look at them. What worked? What didn't work? Can any of the shots be readjusted to make it better and maybe be entered in the competition (assuming you can go back to the location)?

Photography Competitions don't have to be about winning or losing or even entering a photo. Often times, you might get the benefit of critique from other contestents or judges, but the ideas that they present to be photographed are the true beauty of them.