Entering competitions is more than doing it for the prizes, many of the best photographers I know do not do it for prizes but rather to compare how their work fares against photographers from around the world.

I enter competitions for the same reason. I want to see how my work is doing, how my skills mesh with others across the globe, and see what and where I can improve. In fact winning is just a perk but the process of selecting image, titling it, debating if it can compete, and then seeing the outcome is far more rewarding.

I have been doing competitions for years, long before I had a camera even. I was an artist and in high school my art teacher pushed us and sometimes required us to submit art work to competitions locally and state wide. Yes we wanted to win but he taught us it was the critique and participation where we would learn the most. Yes, we celebrated the wins, but he ripped the bandaid off teaching us to take critiques with grace and to seek out learning opportunities while putting ourselves out there for whatever the outcome maybe.

And that mind set spurred me to enter this second image into the Prix de la Photographie Paris 2024 competition. It is a silhouette of my sister with her horse not long after the mare (horse) had birthed her stud colt. My sister was feeding her peppermints as a reward, the light streaming from the barn window backlit them and I caught the moment. It wasn’t planned but it was so so real.

I loved that image from the minute I made it, I knew I wanted to try it in a competition and I decided what better one than an international very artsy comp? So I entered it into the Portraiture/ Other category and surprisingly received an Honorable Mention of it! Making it the third HM in this competition in 2 years.

Check out Rewarded Moments below.