Judgement Day

by Cassi Goodman

Let me start by apologising sincerely to anyone whose feelings I hurt with my inept judging at last night's meeting. I am certainly not qualified to judge anyone else's photos by a long shot. It was a good learning experience and I now have even more respect for the guys who stand up there at each meeting to critique other photographers' work.  It's a big responsibility.

It's quite easy to "judge" a photo in your head -- to just look at it once and go: "Dude, what were you thinking?"  But there's a huge difference between judging and constructive criticism. When you are required to provide useful feedback, you need to look twice and then look some more. You have to see the photo with an open mind. You have to try to see through that photographer's eye, to try to understand his/her vision of what they were hoping to achieve. 

I must admit that I found it easier to point out the things that were "wrong" with the photos (in MY opinion), than to point out what was good/well-done/spot-on/perfect. Sorry about that. When I look at my own photos, I always look for ways to improve them -- maybe the crop is wrong, or the bright bits are just a bit too bright, or the horizon is not quite straight, whatever. The photos normally already have quite a lot going for them, otherwise I won't waste my time trying to make them better. That's kind of how I approached the judging exercise last night. But when I thought about it later, I realised I spent too much time finding fault and not enough time on the positive aspects of the photos, of which there were many!

To submit a photo for "judging" is a very brave thing to do.  Hugo always says "It's just one person's opinion", and while that's certainly true, criticism always stings a little. We are attached to our own photos -- we edit them to the best of our ability, crop them just so, turn up the contrast a little bit and when they are (close to) perfect, we still deliberate endlessly about whether or not they are good enough for scrutiny by the club members and the critical eyes of the judges.  (Or maybe that's just me, who knows?)

When my photos are up for judging, I defend them in my head. I argue that it looked better on my computer screen, or that it's not my fault the bl*nking mossie didn't turn its head so that the light could twinkle in its eye, or that I know very well I could have taken that photo from a better angle.  The judge doesn't realise that if I took two steps to the right as he suggested, I would have ended up ankle-deep in mud. And in my new shoes to boot! And so it goes on. 

But. Our art -- be it a photograph, a painting, a poem, a sculpture of a flying mermaid, whatever -- has to stand on its own two feet (except for the mermaid). When you send your work off to a salon or any other competition, you are not there to defend it. You cannot tell the judges what you were trying to do, what the hidden meaning is, how special the photo is to you, or that you intentionally overexposed it by two stops because you liked it that way. Not everyone will "get" it, not everyone will like your style, some judges might just have a pet hatred of the specific subject you photographed. But just how boring would it be if we all took the exact same photos, if no-one tried anything new, if we all followed the rules?

So, don't be afraid of what others think of your work. You're not trying to please the judges -- you're trying to become a better photographer.  If you can learn something from the criticism you receive, good stuff. If not, shrug it off!  Keep trying. Put yourself out there. Take chances. Try something new. Break all the rules. Step into the mud for a better angle. Just don't stop taking pictures! 

--Cassi Goodman