How To - Photo Competitions

Hello again compers!  How is your week going, any nice wins to report? Just one very small one for me – a Kinder book and chocolate bar that my eldest won for entering their story book creation competition online.  The book is actually really nice quality, and I am reliably informed the chocolate bar was yummy too!  My chest infection seems to be finally on the wane, so I can start to get back into my comping stride a bit more now.  Being ill really saps your mojo sometimes doesn’t it – I didn’t want to do anything at all in the evenings, let alone engage my brain with comping!  Still, I have managed a few good comping sessions over the last week so here’s hoping that March can pick up a bit, as at the moment things are looking rather dry!

If you have children or grandchildren are they excited about the Easter holidays?  I know mine are!  We are all looking forward to two full weeks of no school runs, homework or tests, albeit I will still be working.  I am hoping to get myself ahead so that I can take some time off over the two weeks to visit relatives and have some day trips out with the children.  With Easter almost upon us I thought now would be a good time to create a new How To Guide for entering photo competitions, as there are always loads of lovely photo comps during the Easter season.  With that in mind, here are my top hints and tips:

• Read the Rules:  Before you even pick up your camera or smartphone read the terms & conditions, and then read them again.  The last thing you want is to spend lots of creative time and energy producing the perfect competition entry if you then miss the closing date by a day or two, or don’t fulfil the theme criteria exactly.  Some competitions will be quite specific about who can be included in the photos too – if it says no-one under 18, or no-one in the photo without consent, don’t bother trying to send in a candid photo of your children as it will just be disqualified.
• Think Topical:  The comping world runs in cycles:  the same kind of competitions come up year in year out, so you can plan a bit ahead if you are able.  During Easter, for example, there will be no end of comps asking you to photograph your decorated Easter eggs, bonnets, spring themed pictures, Easter baking etc.  If you know these comps are coming up you can have a trial run of making the artistic elements, and photographing them too.  This gives you some scope to perfect your images, well ahead of the actual competitions going live.  You can even stockpile the images and use them for multiple competitions, if you are really proud of them.
• Think outside the box:  Try and think creatively when you are composing your photos.  Don’t just go with the first idea that pops into your head, as chances are lots of other people will have had this as their first thought too.  For example, if the brief is for a spring themed photo, lots of people will no doubt be sending in the obligatory daffodils, frolicking lambs and baby chicks.  Have a brainstorm and list everything that comes to mind when it comes to the topic – so for the spring example maybe you could include things like snowdrops, birds in a nest, hot cross buns, Easter related imagery, a tree with blossom etc and try and photograph some unusual images.
• Edit your photos:  These days you don’t always need fancy digital SLR cameras, or lots of expensive photo editing software to create fabulous pictures.  If you are taking photos with your smartphone or tablet you can easily use the photo editing tools that come with your image viewer.  With these you can alter the brightness, crop bits out of images to neaten up a picture or even add colour effects such as sepia tone or making an image black and white.  These tools allow you to add some unique qualities to your images, even if the subject matter may be similar to what other people have submitted.
• Keep an eye on social media:  A lot of the time these days photo competitions can be just as readily found on social media pages, as they can on specific photography-based websites.  If you frequent facebook, twitter or Instagram there will be plenty of scope to use your photos to enter competitions, especially during peak times such as Easter, Halloween, and Christmas etc. 
• Try a Selfie:  It won’t have escaped your notice that there are a lot of selfie competitions around these days.  Promoters want to see your happy smiling faces, sometimes in front of their shops or products, as an entry method for competitions.  If a competition specifically asks for a selfie, make sure that it actually is a selfie that you submit – don’t ask someone else to take the photo of you, make sure you take it yourself.  If you struggle to take good quality selfie photos consider investing in a selfie stick – you may look a bit peculiar when you are using it, but if it helps with winning prizes it has to be worth the minor embarrassment I feel.

So there you go, that should be enough to get your started with your photographic comping, but should you have any questions please do drop me a line below!

Happy camera clicking and comping and lots of Lucky Dust to you all!

Kirsty x