Do you submit photos for publication or gallery showings?

[mollyc]

Curious how many of you, if any, ever submit images for publication calls, contests, etc., or even for gallery showings?

I'm not really interested in gallery showings...printing is a lot of work, and I'm not set up business-wise for sales....but I have been more interested in submitting for publication.

Any one know of reputable magazines or contests?

 

[Eric]

I've submitted for contests and have been published in a couple of local real estate periodicals but that's about it. Would love to have a gallery showing at some point, I just have to reach out and do the legwork involved, something I'll be doing more of when I retire later this year.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Curious how many of you, if any, ever submit images for publication calls, contests, etc., or even for gallery showings?

I'm not really interested in gallery showings...printing is a lot of work, and I'm not set up business-wise for sales....but I have been more interested in submitting for publication.

Any one know of reputable magazines or contests?

I’m not good enough. But we do have an annual thing at work for images we use throughout the year. And many years ago we had some images made into canvases at the office. There is about a 20ft picture of some poppies in our reception.

 

[Eric]

I’m not good enough. But we do have an annual thing at work for images we use throughout the year. And many years ago we had some images made into canvases at the office. There is about a 20ft picture of some poppies in our reception.

Says who? No two people necessarily see an image the same way, it's art and speaks to us all differently. I don't put much stock into this sort of thing TBH, I've won a few here and there but it doesn't mean much because at the end of the day average people are judging it, I don't believe anyone is more or less qualified when it comes to what moves other people or not. IMO you've posted fantastic photos on here.

I would say if you feel good about a photo then submit it, if nothing else it's fun and you get to look at the work of all the other participants.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Says who? No two people necessarily see an image the same way, it's art and speaks to us all differently. I don't put much stock into this sort of thing TBH, I've won a few here and there but it doesn't mean much because at the end of the day average people are judging it, I don't believe anyone is more or less qualified when it comes to what moves other people or not. IMO you've posted fantastic photos on here.

I would say if you feel good about a photo then submit it, if nothing else it's fun and you get to look at the work of all the other participants.

I used to enter the competitions on MR but wasn’t finding enough time to shoot new stuff or come up with a good idea if I won one.

 

[Eric]

I used to enter the competitions on MR but wasn’t finding enough time to shoot new stuff or come up with a good idea if I won one.

Yeah, that is really cliquish over there (as many online forum contest can be) but have you thought about making a couple of prints of existing photos and entering them at a fair or other contests where people come and view art? Those are a lot of fun.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yeah, that is really cliquish over there (as many online forum contest can be) but have you thought about making a couple of prints of existing photos and entering them at a fair or other contests where people come and view art? Those are a lot of fun.

Not recently. It’s been a while since I shot anything I’d consider portfolio worthy. Between stupid work hours and a big garden we are overhauling, I’m not really finding nearly enough time for photography.

 

[mollyc]

I don't really find MR to be cliquish, although I can definitely see why it's perceived that way. The problem is that the skill level is too variable, and you can't just always pick the three (or however many) best photographers each time. I often choose based on perceived effort, rather than technical skill.

I keep entering for the community aspect, not the bragging rights.

I used to get really hung up about entering things (not MR, like actual contests) and not placing/winning but now I just do it for exposure and confidence building. I don't ever expect to actually win anything now, but I definitely never will unless I enter.

 

[Clix Pix]

I occasionally enter the weekly competitions at MR, depending upon the subject matter, but definitely do not consider myself in any way qualified to be attempting to enter other types of "real" contests in the outside world or submitting my image(s) for magazine print or online publication.

 

[Citysnaps]

In the past I've had a few exhibitions and have placed in a few local contests. Also gave a presentation and a talk with a friend at the San Francisco Apple Store about making photos in SF, engaging strangers for portraits, etc.

Most enjoyable experiences were published SF-related photo projects where book profits went to a youth services organization, Larkin Street Youth Services. They provide an array of services to kids living on the street (many coming into SF from abusive families, all over the country), including shelter, meals, counseling, job skills, a safe place to hang out, etc.

For those wishing to publish on a print-on-demand basis, I highly recommend MagCloud. Right now I'm working on a 17x11 inch lay-flat photo book. Not sure where that's going to go. At the moment its about getting a well-focused curated set of photos together. And then kick around some ideas after I'm pleased with how the book looks and feels.

 

[mollyc]

I don't think one has to be "qualified" for submitting things. There have been times where now I realize that I really was not "qualified" to submit a portfolio, or for publication (or whatever, they are all variations on a theme). But it was those times where I was rejected that I grew the most, after getting over the initial sting.

Of course, not wanting to grow (or rather, being happy where you are) is also completely fine. I spent years, happily shooting for myself, of my kids and family, and really rarely sharing them. I look back on those and they are fabulous memories, but they are not portfolio images. That's okay with me. A tiny bit of me wishes I'd paid attention to my art more at the time so that I would have the art AND the memories, but having to choose only one, I'd rather have the memories and the time spent in the present with my kids. And truthfully, I did plenty of experimenting with them anyway, and I was growing, just more slowly.

Now that I am much further into this craft I am able to separate out the feelings of worth from submitting and being rejected vs submitting and being accepted. I don't ever expect to be accepted anymore, I just submit to see what is accepted and figureo out how my image could have been better, or if I should have chosen something else. As Eric said, much of it just relies on the judges/panel, and what works for one panel or organization may not work for another.

For me personally, because I don't work outside the house I feel the need to submit to something every once in awhile to justify the time I spend and money with this. I will never recoup what I've spent, and I don't wish to become famous. But just a little affirmation every once in awhile that my 15 year pursuit of this has some merit is nice.

 

[mollyc]

In the past I've had a few exhibitions and have placed in a few local contests. Also gave a presentation and a talk with a friend at the San Francisco Apple Store about making photos in SF, engaging strangers for portraits, etc.

Most enjoyable experiences were published SF-related photo projects where book profits went to a youth services organization, Larkin Street Youth Services. They provide an array of services to kids living on the street (many coming into SF from abusive families, all over the country), including shelter, meals, counseling, job skills, a safe place to hang out, etc.

For those wishing to publish on a print-on-demand basis, I highly recommend MagCloud. Right now I'm working on a 17x11 inch lay-flat photo book. Not sure where that's going to go. At the moment its about getting a well-focused curated set of photos together. And then kick around some ideas after I'm pleased with how the book looks and feels.

your book project...is it a personal project to get your images printed for yourself, or is it commercial to sell? Just glanced at their website. Most people I know print through Blurb, but this looks like a nice alternative. Blurb quality tends to be hit or miss, IMO. I was published in a commercial book that used Blurb which has great quality, but it was an expensive book (I think it's over $150 if you want to buy it now, we got it at a bulk rate discount at publishing). But their consumer work tends to be kind of chintzy (to be fair, I haven't used them in over 10 years for personal stuff, so maybe it's better now).

 

[Eric]

I don't really find MR to be cliquish, although I can definitely see why it's perceived that way. The problem is that the skill level is too variable, and you can't just always pick the three (or however many) best photographers each time. I often choose based on perceived effort, rather than technical skill.

I keep entering for the community aspect, not the bragging rights.

I used to get really hung up about entering things (not MR, like actual contests) and not placing/winning but now I just do it for exposure and confidence building. I don't ever expect to actually win anything now, but I definitely never will unless I enter.

Okay, so the judging is done by a single person, the one who won the previous contest then? I think I may have participated in the past with this but this seems to be the way it's setup.

 

[mollyc]

Okay, so the judging is done by a single person, the one who won the previous contest then? I think I may have participated in the past with this but this seems to be the way it's setup.

yes, the previous "winner" sets the theme and chooses a winner for that theme. this is how it can get cliquish, and typically the same base group of people choose, but I do try hard to choose someone who has a best effort to the theme, even if it isn't an overall great image technically. others might choose based on friends, and some people do choose on technical merit.

i tried that once, choosing on technical merit, and left a lot of feedback, but there was a new to the contest participant that week who was highly offended by my comments and didn't seem to grasp (depite the thread title and disclaimers in the first post) that it was a contest thread. So ever since then I've been a little more "friendly." I don't even remember what the subject was or what my comments were, but they were pretty mild all things considered....

 

[Citysnaps]

your book project...is it a personal project to get your images printed for yourself, or is it commercial to sell? Just glanced at their website. Most people I know print through Blurb, but this looks like a nice alternative. Blurb quality tends to be hit or miss, IMO. I was published in a commercial book that used Blurb which has great quality, but it was an expensive book (I think it's over $150 if you want to buy it now, we got it at a bulk rate discount at publishing). But their consumer work tends to be kind of chintzy (to be fair, I haven't used them in over 10 years for personal stuff, so maybe it's better now).

At the moment it's a personal project driven by wanting to put together a set of San Francisco images, mostly people, that work well together. And then decide if I want to take it further; which in the end might be only friends who are interested - or maybe something else. I've done a handful of these before, mostly for fun, and selling a few. I've never put a 17x11 book together, so there's the challenge and opportunities in doing that.

The project I mentioned above was much different and with a partner. That was a well defined project about San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood that took more than a year to complete just making photographs alone. I made multiple "book dummies" before release to get it right - an advantage of print-on-demand publishing. We eventually found a charity to support after we had most of our photos done and a clear idea of what the book would be. We also put a lot of effort into generating publicity. That resulted in thousands being sold over the years. Having the SF Chronicle write about our project (including multiple photographs) with a front page story in the Arts Section on release date drove a lot of sales and made the opening night reception at a local art gallery a success.

Commercial self-publishing, ie offset press and not print-on-demand, is incredibly expensive, usually require a large minimum order of books (500-1,000 +). That's way beyond me - visualizing 500+ paid for books sitting forever in the middle of my garage

FYI...MagCloud publishing was started by Hewlett-Packard in the mid 2000s as they designed the print on demand presses used in their printing. A few years ago Blurb bought that business, but MagCloud is still run independently in Oregon. I like their service. One drawback is they don't do hard cover binding. They do a pretty good job on getting neutral B&W. The 17x11 book I'm thinking about is apparently done on thicker material (similar to card stock). It uses Wire-O binding and lays flat - I'm thinking I might be able to use that as a design element somehow.