[bakerking31]

Its getting to that time of year again and I have about 2 months before entries are due for the San Diego Fair photo contest. The Fair holds one of the largest international photo competitions. There is 2 tiers of judging, the first is digital only, then if selected you have a short time to print your photo and submit it for display. The final judging is based on the final print.

Last year I submitted 4 photos, only 1 made it to the final round. The one that did was very strong on compositional rules. From looking at the photos last year that were displayed I think this is an important factor in their judging. In fact, I found a blog from a judge in 2013 who said "The biggest offender were some incredibly static arrangements and/or a shot with important horizon separation placed right in the middle of the shot." He also said "And if the story of your shot is such that color is important (otherwise do a B&W version) then respect that color as you would (or should) respect the tonalities. Overdone HDR or simply over saturated (or undersaturated) colors are as jarring to see as the overdone sharpening that should have been solved by about the second month of your basic digital class."

I am looking for any suggestions on changes. These are generally ones I have worked on for a while and should be close to finished product if not done. I will likely drop 1-2 of these and not submit all 9, at $20 a pop it gets expensive fast, and the first one alone will be around $70-$80 to print if it gets selected.

With that said, here are my planned entries for this year and their categories. A full list of categories is here. Unless otherwise noted, the photos will be 11x15 matted to 16x20. The first 2 I am planning on putting into the large print category.

1. Large Print - Planned size is 24x36 (6888x4592)


2. Large Print - Planned size is 11X40 (9621x2730)


3 -Summer


4. Flowers


5. All other Plants and Trees (cant figure out what category to put this into.)


6. Wild Animals - Birds


7. Black and White Scenic


8. Black and White Scenic


9. Black and White People (I am the one on photo left, stage right).

[bscott]

I like number 3 and 5

[jk333]

These are really strong, I personally like 1, 2, 3 and 7. On 8, maybe some minor cropping? particularly of the bottom. If I were to be very critical, 4 and 6 are photos that are seen fairly often and the top third of the first photo is not particularly exciting. Overall, they are a great set though.

If I were looking to save money, I wouldn't print #6 and #8 as currently shown.

[ZoeB]

This is somewhat of a useless comment as far as the contest, but something tells me you have hiked the john muir trail.

[bakerking31]

As a update. #5 got selected for the next round, the rest did not. I printed and matted it, it should be hanging at the show this year. I ended up not submitting 4 or 8



I did print #1 in 24x36 on metal and it's my new favorite print and lives in my living room.

I am a bit disappointed that only one made it into the print section of the competition but that's life.

[CreationBear]

#5 got selected for the next round

#5 was the one that really caught my eye as I scrolled through--a unique "micro" landscape...good luck with it!

[bakerking31]

Final update. #5 got an honorable mention at the show.

I am very happy with the result, this was my first award of any kind for photography and the San Diego fair got 4,300 entries this year.

unfortunately, the print did not come out as well as I wanted and the turnaround time between the tiers of judging was too short to correct the issue. Next year for the fair I may just find a local printer so I can get it perfect. This was my first time printing this particular image and I feel it presents better on my desktop background (4k color calibrated monitor) than it did in print.

When seeing all the photos at the competition I realized the large format category was very stacked with some excellent work. Next year I think I will submit #1 under the summer category and I think it would stand a decent chance of doing well, it prints way better than it shows in digital (I have it in 24X36 on aluminum in my living room).

[KevinMoss]

Numbers 2,3, 5 and 6 are simply stunning!