| Judge's Contest Impressions |
~ Judging the Professional Division was overwhelming: there were too many excellent images. Those of you who did well there please know that I was humbled being in the presence of such greatness, greatness
in the works and in the people who made them. It was an honor.
There were three protocols I used for judging:
1- The contest's guidelines.
2- The rules of photography that are generally accepted as written in concrete.
3- Finally, the rest were weeded out simply by what I liked best in a picture (basically, the hell with rules).
Having way too many excellent pictures in the Horses and Humans category suggests that it's time to refine the definition and create a new category out of it, such as Formal Portraits. This year, pictures
that were merely posed portraits did not do well (and some were outstanding) didn't do well in the placements in Horses and Humans. I wanted to see people being with their horses in their hearts and
heads, and that's not always possible in posed portraits.
Some of the pictures were out of place in a given category. In the Horses and Humans (bond) category, for instance, one of them clearly belonged in B&W or Art. It received no placement at all where it was,
but would have placed well in one or even both of the other two. It broke my heart not to be able to publicly applaud that picture. Everyone should be applauded for their efforts, great and small. Just
entering takes some guts. I'm proud to have been a part of this year's contest. Thank you so much to all of you!
Susan Sexton
~ This contest was a pleasure to judge with many excellent entries showing a wide range of horses, equestrian disciplines and camera skills. Many of the top placing photos
were an inspiration to me and will give the pro photographers a run for their money!
In some of the classes many excellent photos did not make the cut for top ten, it was really hard to not be able to include some of the photos I thought were worthy of recognition!
The overall quality of work submitted in the amateur division of the contest has steadily improved from year to year, showing good understanding of both the subject as well as the equipment.
When entering a contest you increase your chances of placing by following the submission guidelines: this means submitting your images within the specs of the upload guidelines as well as within the class descriptions. Some entries had promise but they were too large for my computer screen so that it was impossible to judge them, and there were some entries that were excellent but were inappropriate for the category. Finally, there were photos that would have done better with a little more post processing such as color balance, adding contrast or cropping for a more pleasing composition.
Keep up the great work and thank you for the privilege of allowing me to see and evaluate your work, I hope you find my comments helpful.
Carien Schippers
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