Sunday, January 27, 2008

NPPA clip contest goes dit

We knew dit competition was coming. It took a little longer than expected, but monthly digital clip competitions are finally here. :-)

This is great for most National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) members. It should save us lots of money (shipping and printing), allow our images to compete rather than layout and press reproduction, raise the bar for our work, speed the entire process, provide inspiration (and ideas) and increase association membership.

I'm not certain if we'll be able to see all the entries or just the winners. If it's like the multimedia competition, this will be extra cool because we'll be able to see both the greatest and the average images each month.

Because it's new, and they're a little late announcing the change, the January contest period is three-weeks. After January, it'll be due on the 7th like before. However, this is now a global deadline (instead of the way it was).

I'm excited about this because it should radically improve the number and quality of contestants. I think I only entered in August last year and got 3rd for Feature / Multiple. It makes me wonder what could've happened if I competed the other 11 months. It also makes me wonder how many other NPPA members didn't enter all year (and could've easily beaten my shots).

We've discussed the advantage before. But for new PJs with talent, this is the fastest way to get some pro PJ competition wins. For folks who want to become PJs, it's a fast way to see if you have what it takes. Join NPPA and enter. If you're winning, you've got it handled and can snag a job or enough gigs to keep a pizza in the freezer.

I've updated the PJ Contest Calendar to include the changes. I look forward to seeing the best work from everyone each month.

Enough for now,

2 comments:

Ken said...

Now I can't blame lousy reproduction or poor play for my losses. I'm going to dig deeper into my plausible excuses bag ;)

Mark M. Hancock said...

Where did you buy your bag? I want one. :-)