So every year I have a blast entering a variety of photography competitions. One of my favorites is the Black and White (b&w) magazine’s ‘Single Image’ contest. This is a great magazine marketed to collectors of fine black and white photography. It has definitely served as an inspiration for me and my work over the years. They have two contests each year–the single image contest and the portfolio contest.
Some interesting information about the contest: Last year 830 photographers from around the world entered. There were roughly 5,500 images submitted and these were narrowed down to 200 winning images.
Both years I have entered, I have been honored to receive a merit award for one of my images submitted.
This year I thought I’d give you a preview of the images I’ve submitted for consideration. It’s a long process on this contest–The entries are due the beginning of June and the awards are announced in mid October. I love the process of going through images and deciding on what I’ll enter. For this particular contest, there is no limit to the number of entries, but there is an entry fee per image. I try to keep my entry to under 10 images. Enjoy! ,br>
This first image is titled: ”Dakota” and is from the first session in my new studio
These next two are quite special to me–they are entitled “Flakey’s Funeral 1″ and “Flakey’s Funeral 2″ This past fall we lost our good old cat Flakey to a variety of diseases. It was an emotional time for all of us and I was grateful my family understood my need to process this through my lens.
“New Beginnings” — For Christmas this year, I bought myself a toy camera–a replica of the cult classic ‘Diana‘ What fun! This is from my first roll of film and is a shot of the new retaining wall built behind the new Jimmy Johns on West Broadway.
”Respect for H.S.” is an image I have tried to emulate for a number of years. I think I finally got it with this one. The first copy of B&W magazine I received was a Christmas gift and it had an image similar to this on the cover. Howard Schatz is the amazingly talented photographer I’m trying to copy here. In fact, the first year I entered the single image contest, Howard Schatz won the gold award for the category I placed in as well and I was just so honored to be considered among the same pages as him.
’Separation Anxiety’ One of my favorite birth pictures
‘Two Hours’ is another birth picture that just had something about it I fell in love with. I love the light, the huge yawn, the little fist in the corner…
And finally, ‘Three Goats’. I took this while doing a family portrait session at Goatsbeard Farm (BTW, if you’ve never had their cheese…you have GOT to go to farmers market, Hy-Vee or the Root Cellar and try some! It is a little piece of heaven produced right here in mid-mo!) I knew as soon as I snapped it I would be entering this image into the contest.
I really like Separation Anxiety. Hope you win!