Magazines and Competitions

As a beginner I only really knew the simple things about photography but in May I decided why I don't I collect a photography magazine. I sort of felt lost about what I was doing and had no idea about some things in photography at all until I came acorss Practical Photography Magazine'.

There were many magazines to choose from on the stand but they didn't seem right to me. I would look on the covers and think they may be too complicated right now or thats not what I am looking for, but Practical Photography I felt that I could easily understand what was being showed and that I could learn efficently.


So I read and found some useful tips abot shoots, types of cameras, photoshop ideas and ways to enhance your photography that have really helped. Annoyingly I don't have enough money to buy a professional looking camera, so when I read about "shooting raw" etc I can't use that with my tiny digital camera. Although I am keeping each months magazine for when do eventually own one and can use the tools to my advantage.

One thing that bothered me when I began photogprahy was the lack of views and comments on my Flickr page. I wanted feedback and to be noticed. I began to feel that no one wanted to look at my photos, as if they wern't important. The thing was, they hadn't been discovered. Even so after 14 months of Flickr, comments, feedback and views are on the gradual increase. It is a good feeling to be noticed, so I put my photography to the test and have entered two competitions in my magazine.
The first one was the topic of Action with the photo oppersite. I didn't win or become a runner up, but out of the seven stages i got to the fifth, with a feedback card. "Technically good but lacks impact". I was slightlly dissapointed as I thought maybe i had the chance of winning, but i had no idea of the range of photography there was, so in last months competition "Creative Colour" I sent in this photo. I havn't got any feedback yet as the closing date is on the 15th of August so next month i will found out. I am not getting my hopes up too much but i tried to add some more depth into my work so hope it goes well.

Competitions are an acheivement, whether you win or not. You never know what impact it will have on your career. So have you entered any photography competitions? Get very far? Or do you read a photography magazine. I would be interesting to see which ones you do read.



[both photos used are for competiton use only and cannot be re-entered into any other competition]




Want to visit my Flickr photostream with the featured photos in my blog and more then click the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brown_eyed_dreamer/