March Competition – “A Time to Reflect”
By James Egitto
Our theme for this competition is A Time to Reflect. Sometimes it’s the reflections that catch our eye and inspire our compositions. Maybe it’s a reflection in water, glass, metal, or a pupil. Maybe it’s a mirror image, or an abstract distortion, or a hidden detail, or that double-exposure effect created by a window.
Reflect on what you can create in the next few weeks and show us what you’ve got. Categories are Nature and Pictorial, and the submission deadline is midnight, Sunday March 16, 2025. . The judging/critique will be on March 31.
All members are encouraged to get out and shoot for this competition. If you are new to the club, we hope you’ll give it a try. If you’ve been a member forever and have never entered a competition, now’s the time. If you always enter – do it again! Look around – reflective surfaces are everywhere – lakes, ponds, puddles, plastic, metal, or windows!
You can read all of the details on BPS competitions HERE.
Our judge for this competition is Michael Brown. Here’s some of what Michael had to say when we asked him about himself:
“To me, photography is an exercise of mindfulness – a respect for what I see, and the tools I 
work with. My photos are an expression of what interests me. I enjoy exploring the subject of my interest with the camera. It is a means for me to better understand the world around me, and it doesn’t matter if thousands of others took photos from the same perspective because the perspective is new to me, the exploration and visualization are new to me.
I’ve been critiquing photographs and portfolios for 15 years. Recently I was certified as a competition judge by the Maryland Photography Alliance which offers and provides guidance, training, presentations, and competition judging to its member camera clubs.
I assess photographs the same way I assess any art, if it grabs my attention, I get closer. If it holds my attention and is compelling, I explore. During exploration, I critique. What do I like or don’t like? Why? How can it be improved, or what would make it better? A photograph has to inform me, tell me something I don’t already know, or provide me a unique perspective to something I do know.
As with all art, critiques of photographs are subjective, therefore prone to error and bias. Yes, there are technical aspects of captured images that can be measured, but what role they play in making an image compelling is up to the viewer.”