A few months ago I decided to enter one of my favorite photographs from my Alaska cruise last year into the Westchester County Amateur Photographers Contest.  I had entered the year before, but my picture didn’t quite make the first cut, so this year when I got the email notifying me that I now had to spend money to print, mat, frame and hang my picture in the Greenburgh Public Library for the month of May, I was excited!

Having never had a photo selected for any sort of public display before (work functions don’t count), I was really honored to even be selected.  I pretty much knew I didn’t have a prayer to win any of the prizes.  I was just tickled to have something hanging up somewhere where people who would see it would not be related to, friends with or work with me.

The opening reception was this past Saturday.  It was to start at 2pm at the library and that was when they would announce the winners.  I was delayed due to some very last minute cookie making for a function I was attending later that evening, so I missed the awards ceremony.  All of Greenburgh must have turned up at this event because when I finally got there around 2:30, there wasn’t a single parking space available!  I ended up parking across Route 119 and having to dodge traffic to get back over.

Well, my suspicions were right.  The other photographs were by far better than mine.  I thought this was supposed to be an amateur contest!  Most of these photographs were practically on the professional level, which just goes to show the amount of talent these folks had.  The theme of the day seemed to be birds and macro pictures of insects.  I really wondered which of the photographs won, as I made a turn about the room picking out the ones I wouldn’t mind having hanging up on my walls at home.

I think it’s time to go do more traveling to build up my portfolio for next year!  As they say, practice makes perfect right?