This year I’ve been honored to be asked to judge the photography competition at the Orange County Fair. It’s been an amazing experience. I’m hoping that the experience can be as good for all the people that submitted photographs as it has been for me. It’s not an easy assignment to sit in judgment of so many fine photographs. I’m quite sure the other eight judges found the task as difficult as I did.
(Read the first post in this series at
http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/journal/orange-county-fair-photography-judging/ )
Although I don’t have official numbers, I guesimate there were about 4500 entries this year. Of those, between 900 and 1000 were accepted. So the competition was tighter than ever before. I don’t know how many photographs were actually brought in because there were a number of no shows. Again, these numbers are not official, just estimates.
Last night (Wednesday, 7/13) we completed the final judging. I’m very proud of the job we did and the selections we made. I’m sure there will be disagreements with our choices but then art is subjective and as such disagreements are almost required.
Tomorrow the fair opens. I wonder how many of the participants will be there to see how their photograph fared. I’m sure some will be disappointed. And I hope most are delighted, inspired and perhaps even surprised.
Going into the final judging I thought that the quality of light, strong composition and technical excellence would play the dominant role in our judging. And these were very important qualities that we definitely looked for. But it turned out the ‘message’ of the photograph could outshine these three. And while quality of light, strong composition and technical excellence have a lot to do with the way photographs speaks to us, there are other ways in which they speak and sometimes these other ways are the most important.
So the results are in. Of course I’m not going to divulge what they are here. You’ll just have to head on down to the fair to see the photographs for yourselves. They’re all hanging with their ribbons waiting for the crowds to admire them. And they’re all really very good and deserving of admiration.
Oh, this post was supposed to be about the walkthrough. Yes, that’s right. It’s this coming Thursday night, 7/21, at 8:00 pm in the Visual Arts building. Come on out whether you have a photograph in the show or not. We have some comments to share about the photographs we judged that hopefully will be helpful for you in your own photography. That’s Thursday, 7/21 at 8:00 PM at the Orange County Fair (the Orange County in California, not Florida , Texas, New York, Virginia or North Carolina).
See you there.
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Hi Ralph, thanks so much for being a part of this important decision making. I think I was among those you judged, and I know it wasn’t easy. I won’t hold it against you that I didn’t win. 🙂 I was very proud of my effort, and proud that in my first juried competition, I got two pieces up on the wall. So you bet I’m going to try again next year. Someone told me not to feel bad that I didn’t place or get a ribbon or anything, and really, it wasn’t an issue. I worked hard, I took a chance, and it brought me farther that I’ve ever gone before. I was wondering if you knew any statistics, or where statistics might be available? I was curious if numbers like that had been assembled-I entered in the pro category for both of my pictures, and I was curious how many entries there were all together, and how many actually got accepted. Do you know if the fair releases that sort of information? Thanks again for your role in judging. I don’t envy your position, and you all picked beautiful winning pieces!
Hi Jennifer, thanks for your post. I was indeed one of the judges for the Orange County Fair photography competition this year. It was a great honor.
You are to be congratulated for having two photogrpahs selected. There were some statistics given out on the numbers of submissions and the like. I don’t have official numbers but between 4000 and 4500 photographs were submitted. This was the largest number of submissions ever. Of those submitted about 1 in 5 were selected. So just getting a photograph in the show is a significant accomplishment and you are to be congratulated, especially since you entered in a professional division.
If you would like to follow up further with me please feel free to email me. My email address is on my website: http://RalphNordstromPhotography.com.
Ralph
Congratulations on being selected for this honored position!
Thanks Martin.