In that photo contest, there are roughly 400 photos, three of which are mine. They allow multiple entries. They have in previous contests, too, although the spammy wheel has never gotten the grease, so to speak. In other words, in last month's contest (same contest as this month, but for girls, while this month is for boys) the people who won had anywhere from one to three photos entered, and the photos were good pictures, but not professional (except one, which I believe may have been professional, that or mommy's one hell of a photographer). I looked through the photo entries for the girls' contest, and specifically sought out the winning photos, just so I could see what kind of thing they were looking for, and sort of take my entry in that direction.
I chose the photo of Orren at Minnesota Children's Museum, did some minor edits (just a crop and red-eye removal), then submitted it. It's a good picture, and I have confidence in my entry. I believe that with that picture, I have as good a shot as anyone else. I was one of the first people to enter the contest when it opened a couple weeks ago. Since then, the entry album has been practically spammed by dozens and dozens of pictures of the same exact kids, and not even good pictures either! It's as if some people have just emptied their "My Pictures" file into the submission box, crap and all. I am shocked at the things people think are contest-worthy photos. There are pictures that are so busy you can hardly pick the baby out of it. There are pictures that don't make a single bit of sense. There are some which serve as more of a showcase of a messy house than of a kid (have you not heard of cropping the photo? My house is a wreck, too, but I try to edit out the mess in pictures!). Still others are absolutely disgusting (think "see food").
With this influx of new photos, Thak thought our entry might get buried, so we decided to enter one to two more photos (it ended up being two), just so we have entries at the beginning and the end of the submission album. They had to be good photos, though. I don't see the point of just uploading random crap for the sake of uploading it.
This all brings me to the question of what makes a good photo. Obviously it's in the eye of the beholder. For me, I like pictures that are not terribly busy, or if they are, the focal point of the photo is sharp, while the remainder of the activity is a bit out of focus. I like there to be somewhat of a color scheme, but not too matchy-matchy, like if it's a dark photo (a nighttime street scene, for example), then bright colors could have a place, but pastels would not. I like photos that don't look staged, and this is the primary beef with my children. The minute I get out the camera, Erin plasters a big fake smile on her face and freezes in place, and Orren has picked up the habit. I like photos that have somewhat of a theme, but not overkill. Basically, things have to make sense. For example, if the kid is dressed a bit West Texas Punk, I don't want to see that next to a flower garden. I want to see it sitting on an amp, or in front of something kind of rundown, or in a car.
Here are my rejected photos of Orren from yesterday. These are the ones I did not submit to the photo contest for various reasons. I do like them, though. I think our rundown back door area goes with Orren's ripped jeans. His 80's-inspired shirt and shoes sort of go along with that also. The color scheme is a lot of gray and black, but I like how the bright colors in his shirt sort of punch it up just enough.
To me, these are good photos. Of course, they won't be to everybody. To a professional, they may be garbage (and no, I don't trust my professional photographer friends to tell me the truth on that! They say my photos are good, but I know they're just being nice.) To someone who just picked up a camera for the first time in their life, they may be outstanding. To someone with different taste than me, they may not like my choice of background, or think I don't edit enough, or they may like them just fine. Personally, I think that I am getting good results from simple equipment (Nikon L20, 10 megapixels, point-and-shoot camera, and Picassa 3 and Irfanview, both free editing programs), and that with continued effort, can probably improve substantially.
I'm finicky about pictures, maybe more so than a lot of people. Thak gets onto me about it sometimes. I only hope that my pickiness, and effort to take decent pictures of my kids whenever I can, will pay off for us in at least one of the photo contests I have entered. Even if it doesn't, though, I'm going to have a lot of scrapbooking to do once I get these pictures printed!
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