Unrealistic Photography Goals setting you up to Fail

Paul talks about his failure to win at the British Photography Awards. He shows his Platinum Palladium Printing Process and how he is moving on.
Paul is a monochrome street and portrait photographer helping others to achieve their goals and be better black and white photographers.
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[tadeusz]

You’re seen the light, John and the folly of entering photo competitions. Printing your own work is most satisfying.

[danieldanahey]

It’s an honor, and a victory, to have your work nominated… Congrats Paul !

[MonoWerx]

First dibs! Quite right Paul, reasonable goals make us feel better as opposed to the disappointment of (likely) failure. Great content as always. Comparable success with my channel is my goal, and I could do worse than hold you up as an example.

[martinfunke]

Beautiful photo, Paul !!! You win my Martin-award! ;-)

[howardtyler]

Photography is an art form which remains subjective!
A lot of people wouldn’t agree with the “judges”.
If you can have the goal of continuing to make a career out of photography and producing top-notch photography then “awards” don’t matter one tiny bit!!
You haven’t LOST anything!!

[RikMaxSpeed]

Having now seen the winning photo, I can very honestly tell you that I prefer yours by far!! 😄

[johnpatrickweiss]

It’s nice to win a competition, but it’s such a subjective thing. The tastes of judges vary. The portrait you entered is stunning. And I still marvel at the one you shot in the past of the well-dressed little boy. Your dedication to monochromatic photography, and the work you share, are inspirational for those of us who also love black and white photography. Please publish a book of your work, which I’d be excited to purchase. Also, curious to hear how you are getting on with that new M10 monochrome. And any thoughts on the Q3 43? I know gear matters less and the photographer more, but your experience with these tools can be helpful when deciding what camera systems best fit monochromatic photography. Cheers!

[tripswithgriff]

Good message. Never set goals where you can't control the outcome and you have no idea what others will bring. There's a reason pro sports people never set goals to win - they set goals to deliver a specific performance with the hope/expectation that it will be good enough to win.
Love those prints and just wish I could afford to get some done. Maybe 1 day....after coming on one of your workshops next year. Thats a goal I can set 👍👍

[patrickdumont]

Hello Paul, competitions, yeah are, ,, competition, probably feels real good when you win thanks to the recognition. That stands to reason. Now your entry portrait is definitely stunning both for the mastery of it, the backstory you had joined to your entry. Plus the platinotype you did must be absolutely delicious. What I appreciate so much in your this street portrait is that in my opinion you have renounced tricks. I can bet you were already visualising the platinotype when you were capturing this moment. What a sad thing that photography competitions seem to end up as a battle of the jpegs. that is missing the point of photography big time. Wait, may be times have changed and photographers are now looking for impermanence, the transient existence of a flicker on the screen, soon to be erased. That must be a thing.

[davepayne]

Placing your destiny, your creative development and identity into the hands of a total stranger(s) judging hundreds or thousands of entries in a competition is a recipe for disillusionment, disappointment and despair. Yes, entering your work in competitions is an option…but YOU are responsible for YOUR ART getting out in front of people who appreciate, enjoy and perhaps acquire some of your efforts. I’ve been fortunate to have my BNW work displayed in two Photography Exhibitions in 2024…one a Monochrome event and the second a Fine Art Photography event. Hundreds of people were exposed to prints of my Photography in these multi-day curated events and their comments, interest and following my Social Media presence has provided me with ongoing motivation to continue my Photography Journey! I’m now preparing for my third Photography Exhibition in April 2025 📷👁️‍🗨️🖤👍‼️

[walkingmeditation]

Good points. In fact how about not calling it a competition? its art not sports. For the most part photography shows that are juried are fund raisers for the sponsoring organization which at face value is a very good thing in promoting the arts.

[lensman]

I think very highly of you Paul as a photographer, and I think that you are also a very decent person. Photographic competitions are not for me. I think every photograh, even those taken by the pretenders and a Leica of some sort in hand, has some merit. In the 80s I entered a photo competition in one of the Amateur .... magazines only on the insistence of my family. I sent them what I thought was a nice hand printed photograph of a beautiful landscape scene in the Peak District. Beautifully composed and properly exposed and developed. I did not expect to win, but I was disappointed when I saw the winner and the two runners up. The winner was a photo of some obscure landscape scene shot with the Kodak High-speed IR film, with grain the size of a golf ball and nothing else. No tonality, no composition to speak of and a poor technical execution in my view. The other two were topless photos of two young female, as if they had been taken out of the Sun's page3, Sam Fox and Linda Lusardi like tits and ass. That was the last time I entered competition. A few weeks the ago, following a brief mini review of the new Kodak Tri x that I had written, I was approached by the representative of the same magazine to see if I would provide five photographs taken on film for a feature, to see if they would publish it. I did, and out of the blue I got an email that a B&W photograph of a scene in Peak District taken with my 4X5 Wista Field camera had been chosen. This photograph was taken in the early 2000. My wife was elated, and I had a little grin. In summary, I have come to learn that it only matters if I like my photographs, about 2% of my output that is. Never mind what others think. Beautiful photography BTW, Paul. Rock on man.

[Explore.with.Sander]

Photography competitions are fun, but don't have any expectations. You always relay on a few people and there mood on the day, that judge your image. I always enter the National geographic competition, here in The Netherlands. But i'm already happy, if one of my images makes on the yearly tear-off calendar!!!! I love to make a coffee table book, some day. So that's my longterm goal!!!

[tadwolujewicz]

The enemy of most photographers is their ego. A belief that your talent is going to persuade a judge that your’s is a photo which they will rank as No 1. Entering photo competitions is a mugs game, and that’s coming from a semi-pro photographer who won awards 40 years and a few years ago. From now on, I will never enter another photo competition, as they are only after your money and the prizes are tiny. Ask yourself this question. Has your favourite world class photographer ever entered a photo competition? Of course they haven’t. Get rid of the ego, print your work and self-publish zines. Trust me, you will be a lot happier.

[cliffetzelphoto]

Only awards that mattered to me were the regional ones judged by my peers in photojournalism back in the 90's while working at newspapers. Otherwise who gives a rip about awards.

[creative_cozmic]

Treat photography awards as a bit of exposure for your photography, hopefully getting a few more people to look you up online rather than pinning your hopes on a small bunch of people deciding if your work is good enough or not to be considered better than the other entrants work.

[chriscard]

My goal is make a portrait of Nicole Kidman with a 8x10 camera

[C.FlanesrA]

Good advice as ever Paul. Out of interest who was the winner?

[peetje]

Looking forward to your prints, looks very nice.
What’s roughly the cost of a print like that Paul?

[hmuz]

5:40 does that include inkjet prints too?