My very first photography competition was an entry in the nature category. It took several months and much encouragement from friends and family for me to get the nerve to submit an image. My local club is quite esteemed and one of the oldest camera clubs in the nation. There are many published and accomplished photographers who routinely win all sorts of awards.
All entries during a competition are anonymous and only the title is mentioned to the judges. I called the image below ‘the path,’ and sat quietly in a small wooden chair with about 40 other photographers in the audience. A volunteer gently picked up my matted photo with white gloves so as not to get grime on my precious work of art. He placed it on a wooden easel in front of the three judges.
| Disqualified! |
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Silence. What were they thinking? Usually there was a furious button clicking noise as they secretly entered a number between 1 and 9 on a handheld electronic tally device which was tethered to a computer some 10 feet away. No one but the computer knew the total score which could be as high as 27 — a perfect score from all three judges.
Still more silence. Then I heard one of them mutter “I think this should be disqualified!” I was stunned, what did they mean? Another judge asked “who did this?”
Now I had been a member for several months and the competition protocol was considered sacrosanct — no one in the audience ever uttered a word. I struggled to talk and finally said “I did.”
One of the judges instantly spun around in their chair and pointedly asked “is this the hand of man?
The hand of man, who talks like that? I paused for a few seconds to get my bearings and then remembered nearly tripping on the jagged potholed path. I figured if this was man-made, someone would have done a better job. “No,” was my quiet answer.
“Are you sure? This looks like mesh!” another judge said raising his voice. Now, not only was I now speaking during a competition but this had turned into an argument. Since I sat in the back of room, the other photographers had turned and were staring at me. They looked just as confused and probably wondered what would happen next.
Holding my ground I said, “I think it’s natural.” A statement that now seems totally absurd. How could rain mold dirt in row after row of regular knobby little lumps in just that one area of the beachfront?
They turned back to the photo and I heard a few clicks before one of them said “next.” It seemed that I was safe for now, I sat back in my chair.
You can imagine my astonishment when the final scores of all the images were read aloud and this scored a ’23′ in the ‘B’ competition. Not a great score but good enough to catch second place!
My victory turned sour later in the week. I recalled that there was a plasticky feel when I had walked down the path and I called the nature center – there was an artificial pattern constructed underneath the soil about 20 years ago to help people get up and down the incline.
I have now learned that a nature photo cannot show the ‘hand of man.’
| Which of these is "Natural?" |
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Yep! Here’s a winner – just a bush, the lake and a great sunset!
[Excerpted from Photography Insights, Volume 1, by Scott Ober, MD Copyright © 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]
