Not the grand prize, but I won the portrait category for my pictures of Chaos from Canada Day ’06, and Gerry from my Gerry Project.

Our judges had their hands full. With close to 100 entries, and photos of everything from penguins to crocodiles to war veterans and other UCC luminaries, it wasn’t an easy decision to compare these apples and oranges. Ultimately, the judges decided that technique and content counted in equal measure.

To create as fair a judging process as possible, names, grade, and graduation years were left off the photos, and replaced by a number. That way, current students and Old Boys all had an equal shot. (To ensure no judge was swayed by the opinion of another, each wrote down his or her favourite number, with no prior discussion.)

It was a blind judging, and as a result, my two photos tied with each other for first place without the judges knowing that they were both from one person. Not bad for the first photography contest I entered.

Seeing my pictures in print is great, but winning isn’t the important part.

Being recognized for the pictures was a nice little bonus.