Every week there are several competitions where you can enter your photographs and try your luck.  The three “weeklies” are #wexmondays, #sharemondays2022 and #fsprintmondays.  Whilst there is fierce competition to be selected, it is all done in a friendly manner and the photographers are an amicable bunch.  I find that I have learnt a great deal from entering my photographs and gained some useful feedback. 

The start of 2022 has seen several of my pictures featured.  There was a top 4 shortlist in the Fotospeed #fsprintmondays for a picture taken at Gas Street basin.  There was also a top 4 position in the #sharemondays2022 competition.  This picture was taken during a walkabout Birmingham.  The sun was strong without a crowd in the sky.  However, being a winter sun, it was low and gave a strong sideways light.  As there was no wind and there was the opportunity for perfect reflections.  Taking a different photograph in one of the most photographed areas of Birmingham is a challenge.  This picture was different but also had a timeless quality about it.  I was also lucky that the person entered the picture to add interest.  I took several pictures but this first one that caught my eye.  There was some cropping to take out any surrounding buildings so that the viewer could concentrate on the brick wall, the reflection, and the lone figure.

Another picture title “Broken dinner” made the top 10 of the #wexmondays competition organised by Wex Photo Video.  This picture was inspired by an article on broken tableware that was featured in Amateur Photographer.  This inspired me to purchase some tableware from Tesco.  My idea was to break the plates and put them together for a dinner place setting.  Breaking the plates and mug was not easily done.  I wrapped them up in a towel and hit them with a hammer, but they just shattered.  I was expecting them to break in a simple manner.  How wrong was I?  The mug broke awkwardly as well.  I rearranged the pieces to replicate a table place setting.  Lighting was tricky and I used a light source on the left and off-camera flash on the right.  There was also a silver reflector to bounce back the available light.  It is not what I call a “normal” picture, so I was a bit worried about posting it.  The reaction was positive, and the comments were original and different.  That is the key!  Being different got the picture noticed.

Getting onto shortlists has been very demanding.  The next stage is to get into the higher rankings or even achieve the top position.  Not easy to as there is still a lot to learn in my photography.  This may appear to the reader that I am taking it all too seriously.  Not at all, I am just having fun taking part and learning from other people’s photography.  There is more disappointment than success and keeping the fun element is always in the background.