2022 PPOC Image Salon

Mar 23, 2022

"Moon Over Me"

Every year since joining Professional Photographers of Canada in 2010, (except a couple of times I was judging), I have entered the Regional and National Image Competitions. It is a great way to grow and challenge my skills as a photographer as well as it exposes me to new ideas when I see the work of my peers. The hardest part is deciding which images to work on and submit. Three of my four submitted images were accepted into the show this year.

This image was Accepted in the 2022 PPOC National Image Salon along with two other images.

About the image: When heartbreak is too much we tend to turn inward for self-reflection. A few different images were composited together to give a moody, thoughtful feeling to this conceptual illustration of living in a world that can sometimes cause anxiety, but shows how nature can be so soothing if we let it into our lives.

During the live judging of the 2022 Image Competition, I watched as the judges first accepted this image. I was okay with that score, but when a judge called it back later, my heart started to pound. Did they want to take it out of the show? No, one of the two judges, who scored it a Merit, wanted at least one more of the other three judges to change their score from Accepted to Merit. I listened carefully as he pointed out what he thought made it a Merit image - the colour harmony, the softness, the details. No luck convincing two other judges who came back with their own thoughts on her pose, the position of the tree. So my score stayed Accepted, but I silently thanked that judge for giving it a try and liking my image enough to call it back for a second look.

Until next time,

~ Terrill