January photo competition
It’s that time again, January’s photo competition is here and I submitted my photos today to beat the deadline. The theme for the month is “Looking Up\Looking Down” which I thought was intriguing. Mostly in that it could be the photographer is looking up or down to capture a compelling photo, or the subject(s) of the photo are looking up or down. In all, I collected about 20 candidate photos, and over the weekend I whittled it down to 4 photos after finding a gem of a photo I forgot I had taken.
The competition meeting is next Monday and I plan to attend to see how my photos are received by the judge. As far as the story behind the photos, the two black and white photos I submitted are powerful entries. One is of a man looking up at the Gettysburg Address inside of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The photo is 12 years old and has always been one of my favorite moments I have captured. It was a fleeting moment and I remember having to quickly take the photo before the moment passed. The composition is slightly askew, but I think the message in the photo is stronger than that slight.
The 2nd black and white photo I submitted is of a musician’s guitar pedal, wires snaking all over at her feet, a diary open to the setlist, and one of her feet raised as if to tap the guitar pedal. The photo was taken in 2017 at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton, England. I was there to see all sorts of favorite bands, and all I had with me was a Sony A6000 and a prime lens. I captured the photo of Dana Margolin’s (of the band Porridge Radio) guitar pedal and setlist. It was a photo I had forgotten about until the weekend. The photo I remember of that weekend was the scene without her about to tap the guitar pedal. I quite excited to see this photo turn out so well in black and white.
The 2 color photos are from 2024. One was taken at a Trash City Panda baseball game and was submitted to a themed competition last year for sports but did not place. In the photo, 3 young women are launching a rolled up t-shirt into the crowd via slingshot. All three are looking upward in the crowd to see where it lands. It was and still is a favorite photo from last year. And then the last photo is from a rainy night at a Huntsville City football match at the newly renovated Joe Davis stadium. A corner kick resulted in a few players looking up at the incoming ball which is not shown, one has his eyes closed in anticipation of heading the ball towards the net. I thought it was a strong image, even if there are some composition elements I would change. Anyway, I’ll be back next week with the results from the competition. Here are my entries.
