# Photo Competition?



## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Does anyone have any experience with art festivals? I want to enter 5 photos into our school's art competition later this month, but I have a lot of questions and can't find much help when I googled it. I've never done anything like this, so I'm wondering how big the photos should be, if I should matte or frame them (or both?) and how much I should price them at (the photos are also available to buy after the competition). I printed 8x10s off at Walmart, but looking at them now, they don't seem that big. If I want them any bigger, I imagine I'll have to order them online somewhere. Here are the photos I'm entering... (they're being displayed in the forestry building, so I went with an outdoorsy theme.





































(please only click this last one if you are not scared of spiders) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/Jess_Aura/Spider2.jpg


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## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

Using a 10 mb camera, I did a beautiful 16x20 glossy at Costco.  Great color rendition and at a very reasonable price, as I recall.


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## theaatkinson (Sep 22, 2010)

nice stuff. I love macro work, but it's so tough to get insects clear. you did a great job. good luck in the contest. love the owl's eye and the composition on that one.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Darn, I wish we had a costco around here. The nearest one is 350 miles away. Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll keep that in mind in the future (hopefully with one nearer by!).

Thank you, Thea!! I've heard bug pics are really hard to sell, but hopefully people in the forestry building are a little more open-minded.  I love bugs.

I e-mailed the lady in charge of the competition some of my questions, so hopefully she'll be able to help too.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Jessica, 
Try a Fedex/kinko's store.
or a Ritz Camera store.

Just sayin.....


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't think we have any of those around here, but I ended up going with the ones from walmart. The biggest they do is 8"x10", but I asked the lady in charge and she said that was fine. We're matting all our photos on Saturday and I bought some cheap frames, then we'll turn them in on Sunday for the show. I made some cool little cards to slip in the frame with my info that I can also put the price on.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

pretty card!  good luck and let us know how it goes.


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## Syria Says... AKA Celia Can Read (Apr 16, 2010)

It's a toss up between the Startled Owl and Drag-Under-Fly pictures for me!  

Great job, dawl! Good luck!


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks guys! I'll definitely keep you all updated!


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## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

I'm rootin' for you, Jessica.


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## neo_gr8est1 (Feb 17, 2009)

Those are really good pictures! What lens do you use?

Also, I've found Adorama to be cheapest for printing pictures. They are even cheaper than Walmart, I think. I've used their services before and the quality is excellent.

http://www.adoramapix.com/home


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Ooh, thanks vrushket. I will bookmark them. Oh, and for the macro pics, I used a Tamron 90mm.


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## SG_MetalHead (Nov 6, 2010)

Great photos.

I don't know if it would be considered cheating or not, but you could adjust the colors a little to make these already great photos "pop" a little more.

I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty...

Before and after:



















Notice how the blue is richer and the blacks on the owl add contrast. I did this with Photoshop CS5, but I bet other editors would allow you to do the same.

Sam's club does a nice job with enlargements too. I think the last 20x30 I got was $9 and the quality wasn't bad at all. You mentioned Wal Mart did your 8x10's. I think they can do enlargements also. They usually sent large prints to an outside lab. Probably the same lab Sam's club uses.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I love what you did! I'll have to play around more with Photoshop next time. Thanks for the tips!


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Well, not too much to report! It was actually a very frustrating experience. The girl I was supposed to meet to put up my photos didn't show up and has ignored all my subsequent e-mails. I ended up setting them up myself, but we were promised they would be locked behind glass when we entered, and they were just sitting out in an open room. No one batted an eye when I went in there with scissors and a marker and started cutting stuff up and marking on things (I was setting up my photos, but no one else knew that!). 

I have no idea when I'm supposed to pick up my photos because there was zero communication, so I think I'll just go find them on Monday and walk off with them. There were a lot of very talented photographers who entered, so I didn't win anything, and no one contacted me about buying them. There's another competition after spring break though, so I'll probably enter that one as well. I've also had a few requests from friends to give them the photos for birthdays, so they'll probably end up on some friends' walls.  Thanks for all the help and although I didn't win anything and the show was extremely frustrating, it was still a good experience!


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Thanks for giving us the report of the "results".
Better luck next time.
Just remember you have to kiss a lot of frogs...........


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

geoffthomas said:


> Just remember you have to kiss a lot of frogs...........





Spoiler



to make frog stew....



sorry it wasn't a real fun experience, but here's hoping next time is better.


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