I spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday this week in bed with one of the worst sore throats I’ve ever had in my life. On Friday I finally felt like I was turning the corner, only to wake on Saturday morning streaming with cold. I am still in bed this morning feeling rotten and, to be honest, was feeling a tad sorry for myself. I needed a pick me up.

It arrived in the form of an email from the Fine Art Photography Awards to inform me that 3 of my 4 entered images have been awarded in this year’s international competition – I’m chuffed to little bits 😊

‘Lies’ has been nominated in the Conceptual category,
‘Moths To A Flame’ has been nominated in the Fine Art category and
‘None So Blind’ as been nominated in the Photomanipulation category.
If you click on the links or the photos below it will take you to the FAPA website where you can see mine, the other awarded and the category winner’s pictures.

It’s odd, because none of these pictures did particularly well in camera club competitions. The camera club world does not understand conceptual pictures, even though when judges undertake training they are told that 60% of the mark should be for the story telling value of the image and the one thing my creative photographs do is tell a strong story. Technically they are always as near to perfect as you can get, it’s rare a judge can ever point out a flaw or mistake in one of my images, and yet they’re routinely marked down, though judges can never tell me why. When I’ve discussed this I’ve been told that it’s “horses for courses” and that the camera club world is its own little bubble, but it shouldn’t be! A photographic judge should be able to appreciate all genres of photography and that includes conceptual. I feel an article coming on to the PAGB E-news magazine 😉

I’m particularly delighted that ‘Lies’ has been recognised as it has a very personal and deep meaning for me. I have been promised lunch out in celebration of my FAPA success but it will sadly have to wait until I am feeling better. In the meantime I’m off for some more ibuprofen and a Strepsil.