Photo

My award-winning photo. This was a very well contested competition and difficult to judge. The winning pic (No. 6) is very well done with great exposure and colour and perfect movement to suit the comp theme exactly. Whilst I think it could have been cropped a little tighter on the top (to remove the screen in the top right) and a little on the bottom, this clearly would be a very saleable shot and would easily sit in a company annual report or on the pages of a trade magazine or niche newspaper/magazine like the AFR or The Bulletin. Congratulations! – Cameron Laird, Photojournalist

A few weeks ago I was on the way home, and mucking about withmy new(ish) camera, trying to figure out what all the various controls did. I took a photo on the platform at Parliament station. A little later I happened to be surfing around and came across a photo competition web site – the theme of the month: "transport". Judged by some photojournalist dude. So I entered the picture.Today I found out it won. Okay, so the prize is only a $25 voucher, but maybe it’s my lucky week!

To be self-critical for a moment, I think it’s a bit blurry. I mean, that’s okay for the train, in fact that’s the cool thing about the picture. But it’s not so okay for the platform and the people – the camera (and my hand which was attached to it at the time) must have moved a bit. And of the pictures in the competition, I actually preferred the one of the camel.

Meanwhile on the moving front… I took another look at the secondary choice house tonight, and decided that I don’t like it enough to go horrendously into debt for. So I’m putting all my efforts into getting the other one. And if that doesn’t work out, no matter, I’ll rent for another year or two and bide my time, building up my savings a bit more for something equally good – if not better.