Some time ago I entered a photograph of mine into the Wellington Photographic Society Digital Projection competition.  I never expected in a million years to win but wanted to use the chance to get it critiqued.  There were around 100 images in the competition so I sat for almost an hour listening to the Head of Photography at Massey University talking about other people’s pictures eagerly awaiting what he might say about mine.

When my turn came the moment passed in such a flash I can still barely remember what he said.   I do know it was something nice about the reflections but otherwise my ears seemed to shut down and I had stopped breathing for a moment.  Luckily the room was dark and noone could see my cheeks burning.  Given this experience I was not relishing the critiques on my photography course even though they are much more informal and just a handful of friendly folk.

We’ve had two assignments to complete – one was a photo documentary and the other portraits.  The photo documentary had to be of a mundane thing that was repetitive but something that could have the story told in 6 images. Images submitted had to be converted to black and white but otherwise no fancy processing required.

It didn’t take much thinking to use a basset walk as my story.  From the 52 images I submitted for critique 6 pictures were chosen for the final edit..  People said nice things about the photographs but also gave me feedback on those that didn’t work so well.  When I looked through them all again afterward it was clear to me what people were saying and I’ve learned a lot from the critique.

Here’s the story – regular readers might find this familiar territory. Although I do too I can see how these pictures were selected as better than others.  Would be interested to know what you think.