How to Take Award Winning Photos

Sam Kinison had a wild sketch about world hunger.  His basic premise was that those who live in the desert need to move to where the food is.  That same principle holds for award winning photography..you have to go to where the amazing images might be found.

So, this is where life gets unfair.  Some of the greatest and most unusual photos ever taken are WAY off the beaten path.  It takes time, effort and money to get to those locations.  Few people have those three items at the same time…the money, the time and wanting to take the effort to go get a great shot.  Think “National Geographic”.  National Geographic’s iconic photos were not taken in their backyards.  Some photographer planned and worked and waited to get that great photo.  And that is what it takes…all of that…and some luck.

Yes, it helps if you have the world’s best photography gear.  It helps if you are a great editor of photos.  It certainly helps if you have built up your skills so you can compose the photo, get the right exposure at just the right moment.  But none of those help if you really have nothing unique to shoot.

My wife, Linda, and I just returned from one of the words great locations (the Lofoton Islands in Arctic Norway)  for aurora photography…the Northern Lights.  We were in the right spot at the right time of year, with guides who knew exactly what they were doing…and who could place us in great locations to frame the amazing light show in the sky.  One problem…clouds…100% cloud cover.    We were on location for eight or nine days…and every single day had clouds.  However…and this is where luck comes in…on one evening, the clouds parted and the skies lit up with the greatest aurora show we will ever experience.  We got our shots and some may, indeed, become award winners.

So throw this little story into your thinking about award winning photography.  It takes “unique” to win the big prize.  I will admit that I have won a couple of contests where the shots were taken on my home turf…it can be done.  However, the likelihood of your beating 10,000 other photos that have been entered in a contest with your backyard shot are quite slim.  If you carefully plan, organize and seek out a great location…a Lofoton Islands, the Serengeti, the Atacama Desert, Patagonia, Yellowstone, Moab, the Arctic, Iceland, Hawaii or Tahiti…you increase your odds of getting a winning shot by a large measure.  And then you need to get a little lucky.

Go to where the photos are…and grab your own winning image.  I wish you the best of luck and hope you enter that award winner in a contest that does not include me…I already have all the competition I need.

Aloha.