All's fair in love and photography?

I have been a dabbler in photography since I received a 110 film camera back in the stone ages when I was 7 or 8, and over the years my equipment and skills have improved and I have even evolved into the digital age, more or less willingly.  Over the years I've enjoyed entering a few pictures in the local county fair with varying results.  In 4-H as a teenager with a 35mm camera I always placed well but never went to the State Fair in that particular project, but I did grow bolder and even tried open class once my 4-H days were over.  That particular fair had a wonderful photography exhibit and was very competitive, more often than not I never placed but when I did, I felt like it actually meant something.  Then I grew up, went to school for a century or two, and started something called real life and my exhibitionistic days seemed behind me.  But after I had settled down again I figured why not try again at a fair 300 miles away?  That was a mistake.

It was a much smaller fair and the photography was all jumbled up with finger paintings by 5 year olds and cross-stitch patterns by octogenarians and the homemade potholder display.  Worse, nothing was sorted by class, subject, or age group.  The proverbial monkeys that should be trying to type up Hamlet must have taken a break to arrange the exhibit.  The judging was also a travesty, apparently by same said monkeys, as photos well worth placing were left barren while certain unremarkable prints took the prize.  I was embarrassed even to be a part of it.

Then we moved again (500 miles later) and another small fair presented itself, why not?  So off I went again with my photos to the county fair, this one had a rather strange classing system (based on film type (110, 35mm, digital, etc, I was surprised not too see polaroid!) but I thought I might as well try as not.  I entered 10 shots and took a blue on every one plus a few special merits and Reserve Champion, awesome photographer you ask?  No, tiny fair!  The exhibit was small but well organized and the judging was fair, therein I must be content.  I'd like to see a larger array of photos and of better quality, but at least it is a start.  As there were a total of 50 photos, I took about 20% of the lot!  Most were just snapshots rather than people trying to be artistic, which is fun but not really a challenge.  I miss the fair of my youth, but for a minuscule fair, I cannot complain, at least I felt like the judging was not based on the photographer but on the quality of the work.  The Grand Champion deserved to be grand champion, whereas the last fair I went to, the Grand Champ was only such because of who they were not what they had done.

I love beauty and am overjoyed when someone manages to catch it on film, I can't paint or draw, only push a button to capture a moment in time, but sometimes it is a window into something beyond it.