Friday, September 5, 2008

It's Only Fair

Thank you all so very, very much for your plentiful and extremely helpful feedback! You all are, quite simply, the best!
I ended up tallying the results of everyone's feedback, combined those results with my personal preferences and then stared at the photos right up until the very last minute - seriously, it was the last minute. The first printer i called said they couldn't have prints ready in time, the second said i absolutely needed to have the pictures in to them by close of business that Thursday. Of course, to complicate matters, i also had to work Thursday night. With five minutes left before i had to leave for work, i still hadn't decided; so i sent five or six of my favorites to the studio to be printed. i hoped that, when enlarged, i would possibly find some imperfection, etc. that would help me narrow down the three finalsists.
Yeah, it didn't help, they still looked good, even enlarged. i still couldn't choose. To maximize opportunities for recognition (ie. prizes), i opted to submit only one picture per lot (you can't win more than one prize per lot). This forced me to choose between some of my favorite pictures.
In the final tally, Mesa Arch ended up being the "audience" favorite with Havasu Falls close behind.
Mesa Arch

Havasu Falls

And while i really like the picture of Mesa Arch, i seemed to remember having seen at least one or two in last year's fair, thus i wasn't sure what kind of originality points it would score with the judges. So i went with the photo of Havasu Falls which really is one of my most favorite pictures.
I also really like the panoramic image of Navajo Falls, and submitted it as well.

And finally, since my only real "professional" photography experience comes from the wedding field, i felt it somewhat necessary to choose a wedding-related photograph, and the close-up of Kira in front of Multonmah Falls is one of my favorites. (I also really liked the vertical panaroma of Kira and the Falls, but felt the people on the bridge were too distracting).

Anyway, i hate to say it, but it looks like most of you were right; my favorite picture of Havasu Falls didn't win anything and there were no other pictures of Mesa Arch, so the Mesa Arch picture may have done better.

And the kind of disappointing thing was that the picture that won was from Antelope Canyon, and i kinda think my old Antelope Canyon pics were slightly better.




Since no one from the "audience" had really chosen this bridal picture of Kira as one of their favorites, i was somewhat surprised to see this...

That's fourth place, which isn't too shabby!
And we were very surprised to see this in the panoramic section...

That's first place, can you believe it?! There were definitely some great pictures over in the panoramic section, so i was both pleased and surprised my photo did so well.
Anyway, thank you all again for you help. While i may not have chosen the same photo you did, i definitely considered and appreciated everyone's feedback. Maybe next year i can get the pictures submitted before the last second.