pause for thought....

I hate waiting...my wife says I have no patience and she is right I don't. The reason why I mention this is because I am waiting on the results of two submissions I have made to two different competitions - the British Wildlife Awards and the Projected Image. I have mentioned both of these before but I don't know why but waiting for the results from both submissions is driving me nuts. I know I have been short listed for wildlife awards - but that doesn't mean anything. Will I be selected or rejected? The same goes for the Projected Image. I just can't concentrate on doing anything other than worrying about these two submissions - its driving me nuts!!!!

On a slightly connected note I was going to attend a one day garden photography course run by the RPS at Kew Gardens in September. However, this has been cancelled - lack of numbers so I decided to get a refund on my train tickets. They don't do refunds so I have slightly changed my travel times and will spend the day going around galleries etc. I'm still working on an itinerary but there looks like a lot of interesting exhibitions so it should be an interesting day out. So what is the connection you might ask? Will I am thinking about entering the garden photographer of the year competition and this was going to help. Another frustration.

What this has meant is that I have had little inspiration to take any photographs so I have spent my time catching up - something I have written about earlier. The photograph above is the result of this catching up.

Another one bites the dust...

Instructions followed, checked and rechecked. Images selected, reduced to the correct number of pixels and colour space and we are done. Another submission made for another exhibition/competition. It is very frustrating and yet at the same time quite rewarding. Now it is just a matter of chance. I have no control and just have to sit back and wait. The odds are always stacked against you but you will never get anywhere with trying and rejections is the norm but this shouldn't stop you. Well that is what I tell myself. It won't stop me feeling really dejected when the 'Dear John' arrives. Such is the life of a jobbing photographer.

BWPA Submitted

Deer Park - Marloes

Well that's another set of photographs submitted. Now onto the next submission. Well it is a busy time at the moment. I have submitted photographs to the Landscape Photographer of the Year and now the British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA). The next is the Projected Image Exhibition with the RPS. All these competitions are very much the luck of the draw. You try and develop string images that meet the brief and then hope they catch the eye of the judges. There is no feedback nor evolution as you might get with a client.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is the photograph above. I have submitted this as part of the Habitat category of the BWPA and nothing unusual about that I suppose apart from I had forgotten that there was a Habitat category until this morning when I paid my dues and submitted the work. So a quick rummage through my photographs came up with three that I thought fitted the brief. No long deliberation as I had with other photographs but a quick selection process and that was it. Does this mean it has less chance of sucess than the others? I don't know and this demonstartes the random nature of the process. Still it is fulfilling just going through the process and so onto the next submission.

I have a plan...

Broad Haven beach

I have a plan. Over the next few weeks there are a number of competitions that I am planning to submit work to. This means I will have to restrict the work I will undertake and I am going to have to make a plan. So here is the plan. I will not work on the bird photography from the Pembroekshire shot until I have completed the submission for the Landscape Photographer of the year. This also means that I will not make any other photographs from the Pembroke shoot than I have already done. To see the whole shot to date click here. This doesn't mean I will be returning to this set of images it just means I have selected what I consider to be the best photographs for the competition. There are only so many sunset photographs you can choose for a submission.

After the Landscape Photographer I am going to work on the British Wildlife awards. This should coninside with the completion of the photographs of bird in Pembrokeshire and my next big shoot in Northumbria. However, the date of the submission for this is very close to when I get back from Northumbria so I am not sure how many photographs from Northumbria will be included.

After this there is the projected image exhibition with the RPS. I can't recall the closing date for this but I think it is some time in August. I am hoping that the work I have done on the first two submissions will help me with this.

After this there is the Portfolio two submission to work on. This is sometime in Sept/October. Again the plan is that there previous work can be rolled up into this - thus reducing my work - afterall I would love to get out and make some new images.