None of us need an excuse to photograph our kids. They are the reason in themselves; from cute babyhood when every smile just has to be recorded, to the emerging characters of toddlers and the gap tooth grins of growing children. Sometimes it’s nice though to have an extra reason to put new photographic skills into practice; to take photos of your kids for a specific purpose. If you’re intent on improving your photography skills then it’s a great idea to think about entering a child photography contest.
There are lots of cute kid photo contests about. Online you can probably choose from hundreds. If you look carefully you’ll find that some are genuine contests with experienced expert judges and worthwhile prizes, while others are barely disguised attempts at marketing products, with the products themselves as prizes. Others will offer prizes of say a voucher for a canvas print.
It’s up to you to decide what your priorities are when you decide to enter one of these photo contests. If you’re just doing it for fun and to improve your photography, then the prizes aren’t important, but it does make sense to choose a contest where some sort of photographic quality standards are used in the selection process. Look for contests that explain their selection criteria. Photos may be short-listed by experts and then voted for by the public, or judged completely by a panel of photo industry professionals.
Once you’ve picked a contest that you’d like to enter, have a look at previous winning photos and see what makes them stand out. Besides the cuteness of the child’s face and expression, look at the light; often soft natural daylight falling from one side makes for a photo with winning appeal. How are the kids dressed in the winning photos? Often simple but pretty clothes enhance the cute kid factor. Probably the most important element in a child portrait is the eyes. Look at any portrait and you’ll notice that the eyes are what draw you in. So when you’re taking photos of your child make sure that you get their eyes in sharp focus so that you can catch the sweetness of their expression.
Most photo contest have monthly divisions and then the winning photos from those go into an annual contest which has the grand prizes. This means that you can enter every month to stand a better chance of winning. Challenging yourself to produce a great picture to submit every month is a great way to add motivation to work on your photography skills. Start with a basic online course and use the photo contests as a reason to keep photographing your kids and trying out new ways of using your camera. After all, you already know that your child is the cutest kid in the world. The challenge is for your photo skills to show that to the world!
Link to this page
