my-kendall-life

I belong to a few photog groups and troll quite a few blogs. Some are informational business-wise. Some have a lot of great teaching articles. Some are of great inspiration with beautiful photos. One is a professional photog group. It's hard hitting and frustrating with true hard hat critiques, way hard core photographers, but this is what I need to press on and get better. I'm thick skinned so I can hang. It has helped tremendously but on the same note, has seriously made me doubt my abilities. Sometimes a girl just needs some sugar!

Which is why I visit Better Photo.

Daily dose.

They have a monthly contest. I enter every morning. Over many many months now, I have been getting more and more praise and given 'editors picks' on a more regular basis. Bonus I get lots of private emails from some AMAZing photographers there in support. Its wonderful! Just what the doctor ordered.

However, I'm well aware that it's a Shiny Happy People site where all who leave comments on your photos are Prozac-laced. It's a superb ego boost. But never any true critique. Better Photo is a contest with 31300 photos entered monthly from photographers literally all over the world. Crazy odds to win right? Especially since they have only 363 finalists. Out of those finalists, ultimately there is just 1 winner each month. There is also 1 first place award in each of the 10 categories and 10 2nd place winners in those categories.

Today I'm sick. I'm icky and sad. I want to crawl into bed and sleep. And then I open my email. It read that one of my photos has made the finals. WHOA! I'm absolutely blown away. Then again within the hour... I get another email showing me this.


And while there is no tangible prize. I'm still just Tooooo excited! I get a new free fancy schmancy portfolio on their site, which I've wanted. Talk about an ego boost...