Role of the Judge
There are three important jobs for a judge:
- to process the competition and decisively choose the best images in as fair and professional manner possible, using a sense of humor and comfortable language to put competitors at ease, and leaving any personal photographic likes and dislikes at the door;
- to take proper opportunities to critique by teaching, doing this as quickly as possible in a clear, non-repetitive, easy to understand, and non-hurtful manner always looking for the positives before commenting on potential improvements; and
- to encourage photographers not only to improve specific flaws in an image, but to know that they are or can be good photographers and have a proud right to be part of the competition.
Be sensitive to the fact that many competitors are not very self-confident and that you have the power to either inspire or make them feel badly. Remember, you too, were once a novice.
Perhaps there is also a fourth: To recognize that you are there to professionally judge and facilitate the competition, not to toot one’s own horn with personal experiences, or make remarks that can be self-serving or perceived as arrogant.
Criteria for Judging
I would use my experience as a photographer, competitor, and lover of art to apply the following criteria. There is no value or proportional percentage attached to each for they may vary.
- Technical aspects. These include elements of visual design, appropriate exposure for the image, sharp focus of subject, print quality, technique used, color accuracy (when appropriate), ease of finding a subject or center of interest (unless an abstract), and .
- Presentation. Try to convey the importance of photographers showing images at their best for competition. Encourage them to look at matting, colors used, size for viewing.
- Creativity and Story-telling. Images that show a scene in a different, interesting or unusual way, and those that convey a mood or invoke an emotion.
- Impact and Linger Power. Hard to define except that those images which catch my eye or imagination quickly and those that invite me to keep looking at it.
During the process, I will let the image speak for itself in its entirety. Photography is an art as well as a skill and both should be considered and encouraged. I don’t have to understand how it was made or know exactly what I am looking at.
I would be open to learning, however, from image makers, from mentors and colleagues, and from professional workshops. As a judge, I would try to understand current techniques but recognize that I can’t know it all. But I can and will appreciate the beauty and interest and creativity and technique to the best of my ability.
Biography
Mary Ann is both a past VP for Competitions and Past President of the Northern Virginia Photographic Society (NVPS). She is a 1995 graduate of the Washington School of Photography and has augmented that training with many photography and Adobe Photoshop courses, including the famed Freeman Patterson’s Photography and Visual Design Workshop in 2007. She worked as a professional photographer and videographer from 1997 to 2009 and for several years ran a portrait studio in her home. Experienced as a judge and critique leader, Mary Ann completed Joe Miller’s Seminar on Judging in December 2006.
Her images have won numerous awards in the Northern Virginia Photographic Society, ribbons from the Vienna Photography Shows where she won “Best In Show” in 2001, and several images were juried into the Art League of Alexandria’s monthly exhibits at The Torpedo Factory, where she also won a prestigious Equal Award in 2002 and maintained a bin for two years. She was named NVPS “Photographer of the Year” in both 2005 and 2006 in the category of Enhanced Prints and won two “Print of the Year” Awards in 2000 and two again in the 2005. Her image “All Truckered Out” won first place in the AAA World 2009 photo contest. In 2011 her prints were juried into both Joe Miller’s Abstract Art Exhibit and The Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Council Spring Photography Show.
Mary Ann and her husband Dick live in the northern Shenandoah Valley area where she has organized and leads a Photography Club in her active adult community, frequently teaching and encouraging novice photographers. While she continues to do some professional work in photo restoration, portraits, and creating fine art prints, greeting and note cards, she spends the majority of her photographic time honing her craft by working on photographic art and trying to stay current with her favorite software, Photoshop.
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