How should a photography competition be judged?
We’ve debated long and hard over this in our club and after several years have reached these conclusions. Most importantly, the Judge(es) should be experienced photographers. Only experience can determine that the action picture of a say a water skier was much more difficult to get than a generic Landscape. Only experienced photographers has the knowledge of all the different possibilities the photographer could have used and mark accordingly. There should be one (at the very most three) Judges or you’ll have the ‘least offencive’ ‘chocolate box’ pictures bubbling to the top every time, any picture that tries to innovate, or is ‘different’ is doomed to failure. This is important as the ability to grow as a photographer could be stifled at birth. Committees lead to the mediocre rising to the top. The Camel is a horse designed by a commitee. There is no ‘crib sheet’ for a good picture, even pictures which are out of focus (slightly), bad composition, incorrect exposure etc. etc. can be a
