David Wagstaff-Myers Photography

If You Don’t Know Something, Don’t Be Afraid to Ask There’s a sentence I’ve said to myself more times than I care to admit:  I should probably already know this .  It’s usually followed by silence. A pause. A decision not to ask the question that’s sitting right there, perfectly formed, but somehow stuck behind pride, habit, or a quiet fear of looking foolish. After nearly seventy years, I can say this with some confidence: that instinct—to stay quiet, to nod along, to bluff your way through—is one of the least useful habits we ever pick up. And yet, it’s remarkably hard to unlearn. We’re told from an early age that curiosity is a virtue. Ask questions. Explore. Learn. Then, somewhere along the line—often sooner than we realise—that message gets muddied. Questions become interruptions. Admitting you don’t know something becomes a weakness. By adulthood, many of us have perfected the art of appearing informed, even when we’re not entirely sure what’s going on. And here’s the ir...

  If you’ve ever stared at what you *think* is a competition-worthy image and wondered, “Is this actually any good, or am I just emotionally attached and slightly delusional?”, then this blog is for you. In this post, I’m lifting the lid on what really goes on in a judge’s head when your prints hit the panel: the mindset you need, the mistakes we see over and over again, and the tiny details that can quietly kill an otherwise beautiful image. We’ll talk blown highlights, grubby greys, over-sharpening, dodgy mounts, vignettes turned up to eleven, and why blindly following the latest photo trend might actually sink your chances. We’ll also get into mentors, titles, paper choice, time pressure (my personal kryptonite), and why the only real failure in competitions is simply not entering at all. If you’re thinking about qualifications, print competitions, or you just want to finish your images to a higher standard, grab a drink, have a read, and then go and do something brave with ...