The county competition was great! Very one-on-one and the judge was very insightful and helpful. He gave me a lot of advice and recommendations. The state competition though was a completely different animal. I think one of my judges was a big name in avian photography, but I cannot remember for the life of me.
Robin- Wasn't as sharp as it could be, its a bit dark in the face, and the background is distracting (distracting came up a lot).
2 Squirrels- Wasn't sharp (the bottom squirrel is more in focus then the top one), its all a very similar color/ tone.
I don't think they really found anything "wrong" with the snow squirrel, they just didn't like it as much as the others.
Overall, I think it was luck of the draw. The year I went, the overwhelming majority of pictures chosen for places were those that had human subjects. Not that I care- I was and still am really proud of the pictures.
