04/04/2022
Hey There!
I hope you all had a great weekend. I wish I could say I did a lot, but to be honest, it was a quiet one for me, I reckon it was just what I needed though. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm currently studying for my Diploma in Photography, we've just finished for the term, it was quite hectic, not just with the assessments, but all the extra work, in and out of TAFE, so I reached the weekend with literally nothing on my "To Do List" for the first time in a few months, being able to just relax and not think about anything was a great feeling.
Alright, so I teased something at the end of my last post, something that happened over the last month which ended up becoming one of the biggest moments of my photography career, and I'm happy to finally share the news with you... I reckon this is going to be a long story, so buckle up haha.
Before I tell you the biggest news, let me give you some backstory, that lead to the big moment. So I live in the Adelaide Hills and there are some annual events that happen, one of the biggest events is the Mt Pleasant Show, it's normally a big day, thousands of people, carnival rides, sideshows, car shows, and as it's a country show, there's a large amount of attractions and competitions related to agriculture and horticulture... They also do a Photography Competition. Now this may surprise you, but this was the 1st year that I've ever entered this photo competition, I was going to enter a couple of years ago, I had some prints ready to enter, however that show was understandably cancelled as it was when the pandemic got real intense.
With the Mt Pleasant Show back on, I decided to enter the prints that I was going to enter the other time, there were 2 photos that I entered. One of the photos was of some old trees that were partially surrounded by fog, the photo was in Black and White. I haven't told many people this, but Fog my be one of my all time favourite things to photograph, I can't explain why, I just get excited every time, so I was real proud of this photo I captured. The other photo I entered was of a herd of cows with a large tree behind them, this photo is very special to myself and some friends who I consider family (who's farm I took this image on). Taking the cow image was one of those moments where everything just fell into place in that moment, I was sitting in the back of a Ute while my friend drove, I was taking photos of the cows for them, as we went down a hill, I looked up at the top of the hill and saw the herd of cows standing in front of the tree, I took the photo (I should mention the Ute was still moving, I was bouncing around when I took the shot). I'm sure most photographers can relate to this, when I took the cow photo, I looked down at the image on my camera, and I just smiled, that moment you know you've captured an amazing image, the feeling is indescribable.
Now that you have the backstory, let's move on to the competition itself. So there is the Junior (under 18) and Senior (18+) sections, which each then have their separate categories, so both my images were of course entered in the senior section, the foggy tree photo in the "Black and White" category, and the Cow photo in the "Farm Scene" category. I was unable to make it to the show itself in the end, but my photos were still judged, and my friend who lived close to Mt Pleasant (and who's farm I had photographed on) had gone to the show and picked up my photos after it finished. At first my friend didn't say anything about the results, but the way she talked made it pretty clear that the results were good. I waited nearly a week to finally get the results, and not only were they good... it was better that I had expected.
The Final Results for my photos were... First Place... For BOTH Photos. I was already proud of what I had achieved, but there was something else that I wasn't ready for... Attached to my 1st Place Cow photo, was a handwritten letter that said...
"You have been awarded the Judges Choice for Senior Photography"
I was speechless (doesn't happen often haha) What this news meant was, of the thousands of photos entered by anyone over the age of 18, my Herd of Cows photo (the shot that made me smile as soon as I took it), was chosen as the No.1 Photo of the Senior Competition. I saw some of the competition, there were some awesome photos, so the fact that I won is incredible.
I'm still amazed, even as I write this blog post. I've had some proud moments in my photography career so far, but this my be the proudest I've ever been of myself. At times I have had some confidence issues when it comes to my abilities as a photographer, the success I had in the Mt Pleasant Show competition reignited my passion and reminded me how much I love Photography, and know that I have the skills to be successful in my career. I'm now looking forward to entering my next Photo Competition.
That's all I've got for you today, I hope you enjoyed my success story. If there is one thing that I want you to take from this... Believe in Yourself! Never doubt your abilities in whatever it is that you enjoy doing. Coming from experience, trust me when I say, if you're passionate about something, that passion will show in your work.
Until next time, keep doing what you love.
Jordan 🙂📷
