I'm a WINNER

Sitting here thinking, I really can not remember too many times in my life where I have come first in things......except in swimming when I was a kid where it was a wonderful regular occurance.

Last month I entered my first Camera Club comp. I entered 5 photos. Two large, two small and an experimental. The photos were then given to a professional photographer for a month and he was to judge them, give points and critique. Then at the next montly meet we were to recieve our scores and hand in our next months photos.

I was so excited. I had entered one of my all time fav pics and I was certain it was going to do well LOL. The night came around quite quickly and I sat there ill with nerves as the judge put each photo up on the stand and critiqued them and gave the final scores. They started with "smalls" and I could see one of mine but not the other which made me nervous cos the one I couldn't see was one of my bests. Anyway when I knew mine was next I seriously could have puked right there and then, I was so nervous.....and for good reason. The photographer, Peter English (a retired professional photographer) may as well have just told me to bin the photo and start again, and rightly so LOL. Sometimes you just need to be told something is crap by someone else to really believe it. I felt a but better once that one was over, but still wondered where my other photo was, then they moved onto the back of the big photo stand where there were more photos. Yay....it must be there then, I couldn't help but notice that all the pics on this side of the boards were getting high scores and honerably mentions. Now if I wasn't feeling queasy earlier I definately was by now LOL. There were so many photos, I thought it would never end, he awarded third place, then a few more high scores then second place, then an honerable mention......then I saw MY photo being passed to him......I stopped breathing and as he took the photo into his hand he says "Now this is what it is all about" and RAVED about my photo of my little girl. AAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH. I could have cried.....if I didn't mind making an absolute tool of myself LOL. He mentioned the lighting, the eyes, the teeth the smile, the eye contact. He said it was a beautiful portrait of a beautiful girl. I just sat there and beamed my face off LOL. AT this point the judge does not know eho took the photos and doesn't find out till later when he actually hands out the certificates.

You would think that would be the end of my nerves. But no....cos remember I submitted an absolute fav of mine, a photo which I personally consider to be one of the best photos in the world. It was in the "large" category, i'd had it printed 8x10. He seemed to hand out the first place for the large photos really early on, and second and third soon followed so I knew my fav photo had not got as place.......but I wasn't prepared for it to get such a low score. It recieved a 9/15 howeve he did not give me any creative critisism on it like he did for every other low scoring photo so I am going to take comfort in the fact that perhaps there was nothing technically wrong with it and he just didn't like it. He gave another photo of Anna a 10/15, I was not expecting much more cos she had her eyes closed and one eye was slightly out of focus, but he didn't mention those things, he mentioned how the colours were off and he would have prefered to see a tighter crop. SOmething I would never have seen, this is what it is all about for me.....learning to see things alot better so I am just as grateful for the low scores and valuable CC then getting places.

Experimentals were next. There are never as many entries in this category but still I have seen what is done and didn't expect much. I have been to a few judgings now but just never had anything entered. Anyway to cut a really long and what I am sure is a boring story to you short, I GOT FIRST PLACE again. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Peter English raved about my photo again, he said it would make a good advertisement in a magazine, the pose was perfect as was the lighting. Then he wanted to know who took it but was told he would find out when he handed the certificates out LOL. When my turn came to recieve my certificate he said "if you have any money open up a studio". SO if anyone out there wants to give me a rather large sum of money please feel free to do so LOL. I will take free protraits for you for the rest of your life PMSL.

Anyway....here are the winning photos. " Introducing Anna"

and "Bronzed Bride"

If you got this far, thankyou so much for reading XXX