You know when an opportunity arises, and you’re scared to take it, so it almost passes you by? That happened to me this month.
As you already know, I am on a new creative journey. It’s not been easy, and I find myself in a continuous ebb and flow of self-doubt. COVID doesn’t help. I’ve been feeling trapped and I’m unable to go anywhere to experience the cultures of beauty of new places, even locally, which hinders my creative juices. I’ve been making up for it by travelling through old photographs, instead, reminding myself of the sensory overload in Nepal and India, and the visual hangover of all things Gaudí in Barcelona.
One night, while scrolling through Instagram, a ‘World Travelers’ photo competition with Life Framer appeared on my feed. I carried on scrolling, but two weeks later I was still thinking about. Despite a photograph already chosen in the back of my mind, I had somehow convinced myself I wasn’t good enough. I wouldn’t even be taken seriously.
While scrolling through Instagram again today, there it was. Life Framer’s ‘World Travelers’ photo competition. Without thinking, I submitted my photograph. Then I saw the other entries and all that doubt came flooding back. It’s not good enough.
But…I put myself out there!
I did it. Now, we’ll wait and see.
My entry – Artisans of Amritsar
Life Framer – ‘World Travelers’ Competition
Judged by Norwegian Photojournalist, Jonas Bendiksen
Update: 17th August 2021 – “Thank you for submitting to our recent World Travelers competition and contributing to the award. You have probably seen by now that your work was unfortunately not included in the winning selection. Please do not be disheartened. It is always incredibly challenging to narrow down the entries to 20 winning images, and it was nonetheless a pleasure to review your work.”