Still Time to Enter PPA's 2010 Print Competition!

One of the best ways to build your confidence as a photographer is to earn the right to slap "award-winning photographer" after your name. And having confidence in your work is half the battle, right? One of the most recognized and respected competitions is PPA's International Photographic Competition. The goal of entering PPA's annual competition is to receive what they call "merits." Earn enough merits and you become eligible to apply for various "degrees" bestowed by the organization. PPA also selects what they consider the best of the best for their Loan Collection and Showcase books.

Earning a merit requires submitting a print that is both technically sounds and artistically impactful (is that a word?). PPA's certified judges look for 12 elements in determining whether or not an image is merit-worthy. These elemments include impact, creativity, technical excellence, composition, lighting, style, print presentation, center of interest, subject matter, color balance, technique and story telling. 

You can enter four prints each year. Be sure to read their rules and submission requirements carefully. Besides making sure that the print meets those requirements, you are much more likely to succeed if your print does not take up the entire 16x20 space on the canvas (and by canvas I mean the whole 16x20 space, not canvas material). In other words, make the image a smaller part of the entire canvas and mat it in a way that enhances the image. 

I've entered competition quite a few times, and admit that it can be massively painful, but it can also be a total blast if you do well. A panel of judges sits at the front of the room as each print comes up, each judge enters his or her vote into a machine, and then the score is averaged and announced. My friends and I sit together while our prints come up before the judges, hold our breath while we wait for our scores, and either breathe a sigh of relief or a sigh of disappointment as each score is announced. Usually, you're either crying or grinning from ear-to-ear after it's all over.

There are local state and regional competitions where you can sit and watch the judging and sometimes earn merits, and there is also the international competition where you send the prints directly to PPA. Even those prints that earn merits at the regional level must be sent on it to PPA by the deadline for the merits to count. 

Deadlines and fees for this year's competition are below:

1. $95.00 for PPA members received by 5:00 PM on  April 30, 2010
2. $155.00 for PPA members received after 5:00 PM on April 30, 2010 but before 5:00 PM on  May 21, 2010.
3. $160.00 for all non-members received by 5:00 PM on April 30, 2010.
4. $220.00 for all non-members received after 5:00 PM on April 30, 2010 but before 5:00 PM on  May 21, 2010.

Thanks to my photographer-friend David Bailey for alerting me that the deadline was so close! I have four prints I need to get out the door ASAP!