I won something... and Episode 70 of Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres

I won something.

It seems I am the UK winner of the pan-European EISA (Expert Imaging and Sound Association) Maestro Photo Contest

I have been given a double-page spread in Amateur Photographer (August 2021 issue) and a 1 year subscription to the magazine (you didn't have to be an amateur to enter the competition – they are wanting images to inspire their readers)

As the UK winner I am now automatically entered into the International round against the winners in 15 other countries, where 1,500 Euros is up for grabs for whoever comes first.

"That's nice," I thought, then decided I should probably get a copy of the issue with my photos in.

When I showed Maggie the article she said she was really proud of me, and for a moment I genuinely couldn't figure out why.

She saw the look of bewilderment on my face and said, "Kim! You are the UK winner! This is not a local photo competition – it's national. You won. Your photos will be representing the UK in the final round."

A pause.

Still looking straight at me.

"I'm proud of you."

It's not that I'm blasé about winning national competitions, it's just a difficulty in making the connection between something I've created and recognition for it on a bigger scale.

So often it feels like all my achievements are small, or barely achievements at all.

In my past life as a businessman I learned how to big-up the slightest of  achievements in order to appear successful from the outside.

But from the inside, so much of it feels like I'm bluffing.

I do get praise for my portrait and narrative photos, and I do think some of them are pretty good. But the lack of any big following has always felt like some kind of proof that they're not actually good enough.

There are some pockets locally where my name and images are well known, but I'm not exactly a household name.

Take my podcasts, for example. Each week I give away the kind of information most photographers would have chewed their right arm off to have known when they were learning their craft.

But after 70 episodes, I have a hardcore following of around a dozen people, and probably another couple of dozen or so who will pop in every now and then.

This is hardly global recognition.

It's not for lack of trying, but it eventually reaches a point where sometimes things move forward, and sometimes they don't, and it often feels like it has no correlation with how much effort I'm putting in.

Unlike some competitions, where I've specifically created images for them, going to a great deal of time, energy and effort, and then got absolutely nowhere, the portraits I put into the EISA contest were a selection of some of my favourites from the past 10 years, so it didn't feel like much of a commitment.

And yet suddenly I'm being told these are worthy.

Hence the problem of trying to really feel a sense of achievement.

However, as Maggie pointed out, these images didn't appear out of thin air. I did put a lot of time, energy and effort into creating each and every one of them. And if it's taken a few years before it's been recognised, it still doesn't undermine the fact they have been judged the best of however many submissions there were.

Someone out there thinks these images are good enough to be a national winner.

Which is nice...

Meanwhile, enjoy episode 70 below, where I talk about photographing steel geese, and give lots of amazing advice and feedback to people who didn't have to chew their right arm off to get it...

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0:00 - Welcome, recovering from a major screw-up and needing to restart the podcast, greetings and comments
06:01 - Photographing Steel Geese Sculptures by Geoff Forrest at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, Caerlaverock
25:15 - Critique of images submitted to the Facebook Group, "Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres"
1:32:14 - Coming up on Sunday - a live YouTube test!
1:35:15 - End

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And, or course, if you would like to submit a photo for feedback, or just ask a photography related question, then do join my Understanding Photography with Kim Ayres Facebook group and I will put it into the following podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/240842990388815/