Years ago I joined one of the many many Facebook photography groups. This group talked about a photo contest boasting thousands of photographers, a couple dozen categories and tens of thousands of images submitted every year. This contest runs very differently from other photo contests. Instead of a panel of judges critiquing your pictures and judging it with all the other submissions, the general public is the judge. When on the website, four images from one category is shown to you and you get to choose which of the four you want to vote for. As soon as you click it, another set of four images pops up from a different category and you get to pick again. You just keep getting new sets and picking your favorite! It's very addictive and I spend many, many hours voting. It only happens once a year so after learning about it I had to wait patiently for the next contest to roll around.
I first entered this contest in 2017. I didn't submit very many photos since I didn't really have very many to enter. I ended up getting two of my pictures in the top 30% and I felt pretty good about myself. I wasn't a "professional", I was just submitting for the fun of it. In my mind, I wasn't competing against anyone else. The next year I submitted a few more and just wanted to do better than I had the year before, but only got one image in the top 30%. 2019 rolls around and I decide to submit again and I placed even better! I placed one image in the top 10% and two images in the top 30%. It always feels good to see improvement in your hobbies. In 2020, the contest began just as the first lockdown was starting so a lot of people submitted and even more voted. I submitted a handful of images and placed one top 10% and one top 30%. When the 2021 contest was scheduled to happen, there was a lot happening in the world, especially within the Shoot and Share community and they postponed the contest for a year. It finally came back and I was excited to enter again.
For the past year I had been pushing my business, growing as a photographer, and building my portfolio. I was able to go "All In" by submitting 50 images and I felt confident in my choices. I had high hopes for many of my images but since it's public voting, I really did not know what to expect. I was pleasently surprised when the final results finally came in. I ended up placing two images as Finalists, one image made top 20% and three made top 30%. Here are my images that placed and a few of my favorites that I submitted. You tell me, does this make me an award winning photographer? Or ALMOST award winning since I just got finalist?
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