05/03/09 – It’s A Special Day

Being very new to photography, today marked a special milestone in my life.

I submitted two photographs for a photo competition organised by the university some time back and guess what?? One of them somehow managed to clinch a runner’s up position! Being my first ever attempt at a photography competition, this achievement certainly made me feel pretty good (even though it was just a small scale one). However, looking at the other entries, I felt that there were many other deserving winners which should also have been recognised for their creativity and efforts.

The photo competition was themed ‘Reality’ and I saw this as an opportunity for me to test my skills and gauge how much I had improved over the past few months since getting my camera. Searching through my recent shots, I identified two of my favourite photographs which matched the theme. One was a picture of a man and his dog, walking peacefully down a quiet lane while the other was a simple silhouette of a tree (each person was allowed to submit two photographs). Although it seemed obvious in my mind that it was linked to reality, I realised that somehow I just could not put those thoughts into words. I could list out a general idea of how it linked but it was just difficult fitting it all together. One of my reasons for starting this blog was to learn how to better express myself using words in situations like this… apparently it didn’t work. I then enlisted the help of my girlfriend and with her literary prowess, she managed to pen my thoughts into a bunch of beautiful words. As my girlfriend was the one who helped me with the descriptions, I insisted that she submit one of the photographs in her name (Which turned out to be the winning entry =) ). Initially, she kept refusing but she soon gave in to my pleas.

Watching her collect the prize on my behalf was quite a different experience. Well, you may ask why I wanted to do something so strange.  The truth is, as much as I wanted all the recognition for my skills as a photographer, I wouldn’t have won anything if not for her help. The submission was in fact a combined effort between both of us and she had probably played a larger role in the achievement than I did. The other entries were just as beautiful, just as creative, but what stood out for my image was its close link to the theme reality which was made possible by her (Thank you dear!).

-click on the images for details-
(I didn’t expect to win so I didn’t bring a camera and survived on my mobile phone cam instead)

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My (Our) winning entry – Simple Pleasures

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The other submission - Reality's Hidden Beauty

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Our little spot at the exhibition

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