[Craigbob]

I don't know if the judges at the county fair will be expert in matters of photography or local celebrities but wish you luck there. I liked all of them but maybe the astro ones the least. I had the good luck many years ago to see some (film) images taken with a telescope of fantastic coloured galaxies, stars and planets far far away that I thought were great but the stars trails might be something I need to appreciate more.
My favourites were the sunsets, might have been the jellyfish if they were sharper...... as has been mentioned by an earlier poster.
Very eyecatching though.
I would be interested in how your submissions get on.

Looking over last year's judges bios, all of them are professional or semi -pro photographers/artists/photography teachers. So I guess it's fair to say they know what they're looking at.

I also take astro images through telescopes as well, but opted not to try and enter any this time, as it's my first time entering this competition, though I've recently started to exhibit my photos at local art galleries/exhibitions.

Thank you for the feedback. I'll be sure to let everyone know if I get any images selected for the fair.

[Kerrowdown]

What did you do to straighten the posts on the left?

Used the skew tool Photoshop to in fact straighten up both sides, more the left than the right.

I only did to show you what I meant, as a suggestion, sometimes a picture is indeed worth many words.

[ddharriman]

Craigbob

I would go with the original “yellow” version but editing it by taking out the top part of the palm tree (as you have done, but, as you say, more carefully).

Do not worry about the bottom part of the palm tree being seen, my impression is it will not draw attention as you have also some piece of a tree in the right side of the photo too (originally) and that one does not attract attention, and plus, the yellow general tone of the photo “hides / blends” much better the trees with the “background” than the second edited version you have made, also the same goes with the sky, the warmer blue one in the “yellow” version of the photo goes better for me.

Best regards and good luck with the competition.

[Des]

Looking over last year's judges bios, all of them are professional or semi -pro photographers/artists/photography teachers. So I guess it's fair to say they know what they're looking at.

I assume that means that they will rule out images with significant technical flaws unless there is something really outstanding about them anyway. Which means it's a good idea to straighten the posts as KD suggests and get rid of the palm in #1.
What I see in the previous winners are strong, unusual, striking, welll-composed images.

My favourites were the sunsets

I think for a sunset photo to really stand out it's not enough just to have spectacular sky colours. The ones that work best of these ones, for me, are the cliff and the beach. But even in the beach one, what I see is a woman taking a photo with her phone - and I don't think she is really the subject. Whereas the silhoutted woman looking over the city lights is part of the subject - the problem there is that the tree on the right detracts from the image, the horizon appears crooked (fixable in PP), and the high ISO grain doesn't help.

[Schraubstock]

Here's a gallery of last year's winners.

In the main, it appears, the like heavily cropped pictures.

[Craigbob]

I assume that means that they will rule out images with significant technical flaws unless there is something really outstanding about them anyway. Which means it's a good idea to straighten the posts as KD suggests and get rid of the palm in #1.
What I see in the previous winners are strong, unusual, striking, welll-composed images.

I think for a sunset photo to really stand out it's not enough just to have spectacular sky colours. The ones that work best of these ones, for me, are the cliff and the beach. But even in the beach one, what I see is a woman taking a photo with her phone - and I don't think she is really the subject. Whereas the silhoutted woman looking over the city lights is part of the subject - the problem there is that the tree on the right detracts from the image, the horizon appears crooked (fixable in PP), and the high ISO grain doesn't help.

I appreciate the feedback. The cliff shot is one of my favorites, and has the added benefit of being shot with the K-1.

I agree about getting rid of the Palm tree top in # 1.
I'll try and fix the posts as well.

The woman looking over the city is the actual subject, and I deliberately framed it so the tree is there kind of as an anchor . Looking at it, I think I uploaded the wrong version of this as the one I have used to make a print is level, color corrrected and has less noise. I'll see if I have it handy and can upload it before I get home.

[Schraubstock]

I'd look carefully at the winners from recent years because the subjective tastes of the judges are what matters.

This is exactly the reason why I don't enter competitions.

In Australia we run an annual " Archibald Prize" for portraiture.
There are two sub sections for judging:

Peoples Choice Award
The packing Room Prize

See below, it makes for some interesting reading. The upshot of it is, when in the past, I have viewed all the winners I have come to the conclusion the public had made a better choice.

Archibald Prize - Wikipedia

[Craigbob]

This is exactly the reason why I don't enter competitions.

In Australia we run an annual " Archibald Prize" for portraiture.
There are two sub sections for judging:

Peoples Choice Award
The packing Room Prize

See below, it makes for some interesting reading. The upshot of it is, when in the past, I have viewed all the winners I have come to the conclusion the public had made a better choice.

Archibald Prize - Wikipedia

Interesting read. I'd be thrilled to win a prize, I'd be almost as thrilled to have an entry or several in there and possibly sell one or two.

[grahame]

I will vote for #1, 4 and the 2nd to the last one (sorry, I can not count anymore after hitting page down a few times

[Craigbob]

I will vote for #1, 4 and the 2nd to the last one (sorry, I can not count anymore after hitting page down a few times

Thanks Graham.

[Craigbob]

Thank you all for the advice and help. Here's the final list of images I'll be submitting for the fair. I did a bit of aditional editing on three images. I straightened the pilings on the waterfront image, and removed the power lines on the supermoon rising image via Photoshops spot healing brush (Context aware mode). I'm not sure how successful that last one was so if anyone has any suggestions how to impove that aspect of the picture I'm more than happy to listen. The last edit was on teh River Sunset pic where i removed the cars on the far right side of teh image. I don't have that version with me, but I'll upload it when I get home.

[Craigbob]

So the results are in: Of the 12 images I submitted above I got four accepted. WhoooHoooo!!!! Not bad for my first time out trying for the competition.

The four chosen are:
Curves


Tiger Cub


Star trails over Pyramid lake


On the waterfront (Pilings)


Thank you all for your C&C and suggestions. It is truly appreciated.

[Skodadriver]

So the results are in: Of the 12 images I submitted above I got four accepted. WhoooHoooo!!!! Not bad for my first time out trying for the competition.

The four chosen are:
Curves


Tiger Cub


Star trails over Pyramid lake


On the waterfront (Pilings)


Thank you all for your C&C and suggestions. It is truly appreciated.

Hopefully one will be a winner. Good luck.

[sealonsf]

My 2 cents worth:

I like the first photo but don't know if I would think of it as an award winner, but I do like it. The sunset photos don't do much for me but of those, I like the one with the silhouette of the woman and the one on the beach with the sailboat the best. The moon shot, girls on the beach B&W and the jellyfish shots are not in focus enough for my taste. #9 is not to my taste - seems over-processed. The flowers are beautiful and the dog is great. I've noticed that spiral photos do well in competitions so you might keep that in mind. The second astral shot is my favorite and I like it a lot. They are all nice shots - I had to do some work to take a critical eye!

[Craigbob]

My 2 cents worth:

I like the first photo but don't know if I would think of it as an award winner, but I do like it. The sunset photos don't do much for me but of those, I like the one with the silhouette of the woman and the one on the beach with the sailboat the best. The moon shot, girls on the beach B&W and the jellyfish shots are not in focus enough for my taste. #9 is not to my taste - seems over-processed. The flowers are beautiful and the dog is great. I've noticed that spiral photos do well in competitions so you might keep that in mind. The second astral shot is my favorite and I like it a lot. They are all nice shots - I had to do some work to take a critical eye!

Thanks for the C&C. I decided not to enter the Woman at Sunset nor the one taken at the abandoned water park (what you might think of the as the sailboat). Of the ones I did submit, the pilings (#9 was chosen, as was #1 the bridge). None of the black and white ones were chosen either. The tiger cub and the Star trails over Pyramid lake were the other two chosen.