Are there any photo competitions for amateur photographs like me?

MatthewAlves

MatthewAlves

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Matthew
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Hello, do you know if there are photo competitions for amateurs like me?

Thank you.
 
The definition of an amateur like me should be formulated like this:

- Person whose passion is photography, but he is not very experienced in that area. And for the moment he is doing it for pleasure rather than for financial benefits.
 
There are thousands of photography competitions, pretty much all of them (bar professional press awards) are open to amateurs.

So.. what sort of photos does an amateur-like-you take? landscapes, portraits, birds-on-a-twig, birds-with-nothing-on.. you know, the sort of stuff that might help narrow down from thousands of competitions to a few that might be relevant and of interest to someone (you) whom we (as a forum) currently know nothing about..
 
j crossley said:
How about this if you haven't already entered it.
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It looks like a poodle contest.

Better to stick to reputable competitions, eg. the Countryfile calendar.
 
MatthewAlves said:
The definition of an amateur like me should be formulated like this:

- Person whose passion is photography, but he is not very experienced in that area. And for the moment he is doing it for pleasure rather than for financial benefits.
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That's not really an answer to my question.
Alastair said:
There are thousands of photography competitions, pretty much all of them (bar professional press awards) are open to amateurs.

So.. what sort of photos does an amateur-like-you take? landscapes, portraits, birds-on-a-twig, birds-with-nothing-on.. you know, the sort of stuff that might help narrow down from thousands of competitions to a few that might be relevant and of interest to someone (you) whom we (as a forum) currently know nothing about..
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What Alastair said, there are hundreds of competitions, but which ones might be suited to you? How would we know? We don't know what you like to shoot.

I will add though, I don't think that a complete noob with a borrowed camera has much chance of winning a lot of money in a photo comp.

In fact, all things considered*, I reckon a job would get you the money quicker.

You might have heard of the 100,000 hr rule, whereby 100,000 hrs of practice will make you a great photographer. Let's say you don't need to be 'great' so we'll halve the hours, and maybe you get lucky, so halve it again. That's down to 25,000 hrs and luck. You can get a decent new camera kit for £300 which equates to 40 hrs work at the minimum wage, surely better than all that effort and luck?
 
Phil V said:
Didn't help much. Still have no idea what kind of photographer he is :whistle:
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Oooo... now that's an interesting concept! At what point do any of us learn what kind of photographer we are? For instance, someone might want to be a landscape or nature photographer and practice really hard, buy all the best kit, read all about it and watch tutorials till their eyes go bloodshot, go on dozens of courses to some fantastic locations...and still never quite make their chosen dream work. Yet one day, pretty much by accident, they may find they have a real flair for street photography. :confused:

So, what kind of photographer are any of us... and how do we know for sure? o_O
 
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Mr Badger said:
Oooo... now that's an interesting concept! At what point do any of us learn what kind of photographer we are? For instance, someone might want to be a landscape or nature photographer and practice really hard, buy all the best kit, read all about it and watch tutorials till their eyes go bloodshot, go on dozens of courses to some fantastic locations...and still never quite make their chosen dream work. Yet one day, pretty much by accident, they may find they have a real flair for street photography. :confused:

So, what kind of photographer are any of us... and how do we know for sure? o_O
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I get the point you are trying to make, but in this case asking what subjects the OP liked to take pics of may have helped to guide them to a competition which would suit the kind of pics he likes to take. No good pointing someone to Landscape Photographer of the Year if they normally take Portrait pics, and vise versa. Yes, they may find another type of photography they enjoy and / or are good at, but more likely to get a message back saying that it was not the right type of image for that competition. That is if they got any reply at all. ;) :rolleyes:

But, there is something to be said that you are the type of Photographer of the subjects you like to take pics of. Whether you are better with that subject or something completely different, unless you are being paid to take pics of a subject(s) you don't necessarily like, which may define you as a certain type of Photographer, I would say if you want to define yourself to a specific type of Photographer, going by your favourite subject seems to be the obvious choice. :)
 
He probably doesn't know what sort of photographer he is and now he's been told that there are different competitions for different subject types he's probably more confused than ever.
 
Stuart M said:
He probably doesn't know what sort of photographer he is and now he's been told that there are different competitions for different subject types he's probably more confused than ever.
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I think you are one of the few who understands me.


Byker28i said:
Surprised noone recommended POTY on here
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...the-year-2017-discussion.643617/#post-7729372

I did it for a couple of years. Improved my photography a lot, made you think, consider, rather than just shoot and hope to be lucky.
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I am going to read that thread.
Thank you!
 
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