"BOP, POYi and WPP..."

"Contest time..."
This mere phrase can easily bring head-scratching, queezy stomachs, sleepless nights, nervous late-night phone calls to colleagues, and hurried emails to contest organizers. It's that time of year again in the photojournalism trades. Contest time. Editing and preparing your year's best work for entry in the premiere photojournalism contests isn't an effort taken lightly by working photographers all over the world. Actually it's more like a nightmare. This is the time of year when you find out how well organized your work is - and usually more importantly - if you can find it all to begin this mind numbing process. (see my earlier blog post on the importance of good captioning, archiving and finding your images: here) Just the entry instructions alone in each contest can make one's head spin.
The trade offs? Each professional organization now allows on-line entries, and each publishes a book of the winners in all categories. World Press Photo (WPP) in Amsterdam, lists all entrants in an alphabetical listing in the back of their annual book. ALL ENTRANTS. That's a pretty cool list to see your name included among some of the biggest names in the industry who've entered. POYi (Pictures of the Year International) offers cash awards of up to $1,000. AND the latest, whizz-bang digital Canon professional camera body to it's first place winners.

I feel as though I've had a decent year professionally, having won a few of the NPPA's - MNCC contests,
and am mentally preparing for the long nights of re-editing my images for entry into these year-end competitions.







And so it all begins again. -cg.