I am just slightly obsessed with photography, in fact there’s not a day goes by that I don’t have my camera with me, just in case I see something remarkable, which to me is just about every day!

Every so often I still enter photography competitions mainly to dare myself to hold it with the best. I am by no means technically correct, my photography is more emotional as well as trial and error. If I see it and love it, or it makes me go wow then I just assume that someone else might feel that way too. There are lots of photos I’ve taken that I really love and to me tell a story of a time or place and sometimes I will enter a competition to push myself and dare to try. This is especially true if it’s a competition where the judges are professional photographers whose opinion or critique I value. The recognition and acknowledgement to me is huge, worth more than any prize offered even.

I subscribe to Australian Photography magazine and love receiving every issue to learn inside from the experts and professionals who write the stories and share their techniques. It’s a top magazine for getting ideas on how to take those photos that I dream of being able to. It’s a great way to see other people’s perspectives and angles too. I’m still practicing starry sky photos (astrophotography) when conditions are right and I’d love to give some long exposure photography a go to get some dreamy, soft water photos.

So much really to spend more time on. One of these days I will give post production more of a try too, at the moment what you see is pretty much what you get with my photography, no fancy filters or manipulation of the original. Sometimes I think this type of work is a bit overdone these days, making some landscapes in particular, too unreal and then it just makes it a let down when you visit some places in person and they don’t live up to expectations at all.

To me I want to know that the colours for instance that I see in print photos are for real, because I promise, you can believe what you see with my photos.

But back to Australian Photography magazine, in which there was a competition entitled Photographer of the Year 2018. Now that’s an audacious competition to enter! According to the magazine it is Australasia’s biggest photo competition for amateur photographers and you could send entries for inclusion in a number of different categories from landscape, travel, black and white and many other genres. I decided to give it a go and entered a portfolio of photos into the Wildlife and Animal category.  The portfolio was of pelicans on the Murray River in South Australia.

To my surprise I recently received an email saying that my photos had made it to the first shortlist of the competition, further judging will be conducted in January. I must admit I am pretty happy to have had my work looked at and even to progress a little further along considering the quality of the work I’ve seen from other entrants. So I will celebrate the now and see what happens in January.

If there is a lesson to be learnt from this exercise it is not to second guess yourself because if you have a burning passion and desire to succeed then you should just run with it, you may just be surprised!

Glenys