Professional Photographers of Canada Image Competition 2023

I entered the Professional Photographers of Canada 2023 national image competition, as well as judged on the commercial panel during the last weekend of February.

One of my images achieved a Merit score, and 2 achieved Accepted.  (The three scores are Accepted, Merit, and Excellent.) My images did not get judged on the panel I was judging on. There were two other panels (General Photography and Portrait and Wedding Photography).

The architecture image is called, "The Bow Tower". The flower picture is called, "Earth's Expression of Joy", and the other one is called, "What a Whisper Looks Like".

I've been a part of the Professional Photographers of Canada since 2010, entering competition, earning accreditations, as well as entering in other image competitions internationally over the years, some with success, and also experiencing my share of non-success.

I say this as a seasoned image competition judge (and as a mental health professional)...

When entering any image competition, see it for the learning opportunity that you define it to be. These judges serve your interests by providing feedback, not you serving to please the judges. Your image being judged is simply experienced people's opinions. Take from it what you choose, and what will move you and your art forward. Don't carry things forward that don't make sense to you. By the same token, I've learned more from my non-successes than my successes.

Image competition criticism and results are not the end-all-and-be-all of your artistic output to the world. Believe in yourself, believe in your artistic voice, believe in your style, and believe in your process. 

Judges aren't robots and they will get it wrong sometimes, which can feel unfair. Sometimes the criticism of the judges is simply a wrong assumption about the creative process, or the image (e.g., something was "photoshopped in").  As a judge, if I'm making erroneous assumptions about an image, it injures my credibility as a judge. 

Judges may fail to judge the class criteria (i.e., rules of the game) right for an image, which is not the fault of the artist who paid attention to the rules. A judge might say something is crooked, when the artist agonized over the image with gridlines overlaying it making sure it was exactly straight before entering. A judge might overvalue one quality in expense of other equally important qualities. The judge might become myopic, biased, narrow, or over-analytic. An image might be not-accepted for only one thing articulated, rather at least three things that judges are trained to articulate. We are not perfect. Judging is a long, and tiring process. As judges, we owe the entrants validity, trust, a high level of knowledge, and sophistication when we evaluate each image.

Now that I'm 20 years into this photography gig, I filter the judging of my own images through the above criteria. Having images in a judged event is an act of anxiety, bravery and courage. It is definitely one of those things that stretches us out of our comfort zones. 

As a judge, I try to deeply check myself when I make my valuations and comments. I'm sure I have still made mistakes. 

As a judge, I look at sound photographic technique, vision, composition, and impact. These aspects usually breakdown into hygienic criteria of design like: color, shape, form, pattern, line, texture, symmetry, light/shadow, etc.

The one who judges with reflexivity and wisdom will also consider further criteria such as: humour, seduction, love, nostalgia, sophistication, intelligence, elegance, disgust, surprise, joy, peace, grit, kindness, pride, elegance, innocence, honesty, anger, pleasure, suspense, and innovation. A wise judge leans into voice, message, purpose and meaning just as much if not more than lines, patterns, and angles.

Keep creating. Keep believing. Be kind. Keep throwing your voice out there because there is value in hearing what you have to say.