UPDATED 8/18/12 – see jump for further details based on biased comments

Well, it’s time to let the cat out of the bag, quell the suspense and end the betting.  That’s right, the results of the 2012 U.B. Competition are now compiled and ready for the reveal.  Sadly, I must admit that once again Linda and I were shut out of the ribbons in the local Heart of Illinois Fair Photography Contest.  The good news for me is that my Honorable Mention earned previously at this prestigious competition still reigns as the big pond champ and therefore is the overriding decider for any close results between us in little pond events.  And let’s just say that previous win did come into play in what turned out to be a close race.  As is customary, we picked up what remained of our confidence from the HOI fair and headed on up to the Knox County Fair.  Historically, we have done quite well at this smaller venue and we were optimistic with this year’s batch.  Well, I was until Linda revealed she actually stayed behind on picture drop off day to help “arrange” the pictures for them.  As she was telling me this she had a sly smile and evil glint in her eye.  This was clearly tampering putting the whole competition under formal protest.

After work we headed up to see how the judging went.  Note, a ruling on the protest had not been made yet but it would not matter if I came out ahead.  Turns out, it was really close this year!  Here are my entries.

Not bad eh?  Not one, not two, but three first places, only one 2nd place and what turned out to be a tipping point – one third.  One of my pictures (and only one for me) did get blanked.  I am not sure what the deal is, but these photography judges have no love for B&W Raven pictures.  It isn’t pictured above, but I personally think it is a great shot with a nice gray range.  The moth was in the Insects category, the two birds were obviously in the Birds category and the squirrel and bear shots were in the Wildlife category.  The latter took us awhile to figure out since there was another category called Animals which we eventually decided (correctly) was for pets and domesticated animals.  This is probably a good time to point out that I let Linda basically pick the shots I entered into the HOI Fair.  It occurred to me (after the fact) that there was waaaaay to much at stake to let my opponent choose my entries – we all know how devious she is!  Learning from my mistake, I went back picked my own entries and re-worked some of the post processing.   The Stilt, Moth, Squirrel and Bear were all new entries for this fair.  The Ravens in love shot was a carryover (but Linda was doing her best to get me to replace it with an inferior shot).  All turned out to be good decisions.  Another important point I’ll make is Linda decided to encroach in my domain and enter the Wildlife category with her Tiger pictures.  Let’s just say my little squirrel ate it for lunch.

Like I mentioned earlier it was a close competition but the deciding factor came on pick up day.  While we were gathering up our pictures one of the expert photography critics was hanging out in the building (obviously waiting to see who we were) heard our name and unprompted turned and said “I really liked that shot of the moth!”  I politely thanked the expert and gave a great big smile towards Linda.  Thank you for the kind comments but more importantly thank you for handing Linda the umbrella for another year.

She is definitely stepping up her game and keeping me on my toes.  I might have to pull out the big guns next year to stay on top.  By the way, we were a little worried when we went to pick up our pictures.  Another individual noticed us stacking up our pictures and recognized which ones we were picking up – he proceeded to tell everyone we were the Doerflers – our eyes started darting around anticipating a pitchfork carrying crowd to come and run us out their county.  It turned out all good, they even thanked us for participating in the categories that actually grew this year.  We loaded up the car, went over and picked up our winnings and called it another successful contest season — well, one of us was feeling more successful than the other hehehehe.

UPDATE:

I see from some of the uninformed comments that I received that there needs to be some additional discussion (err… education) on this year’s UB competition.  First off, I would like to address an apparent “slam” (yeah, I used it) on an obviously kind, observant, and dare I say extremely competent photography critic that has been dismissed simply because of some deviant attempt to smear her credibility.  Linda has NO idea the age of this individual (I would put her in a very young looking mid 20’s – guessing a runner) but regardless of that fact, where does it say AGE is a criteria for photographic judging ability?   Is there some magic age where you understand one picture better than another?  some switch that gets flipped that you can now tell fuzzy vs crisp, interesting vs the mundane?  (if so.. we need to set an age limit for judging at HOI, but I digress).  I say NO!.  I therefore cry foul on this slander and call for an immediate apology – if you want you can join in the apology line that the current administration steps in after every Biden election speech.

Now we need to address the misunderstanding of the ribbon counts provided by my lovely … yet deceptive.. wife.  Even though this is my blog that I pour my sweat and tears in, I did have Linda take a picture of her entries from the Knox Fair.  I’m feeling exceptionally fair and balanced at the moment.

Sure this may look impressive at first viewing (again, keeping in mind this was arranged by Linda) but you have to look under the covers, get down to the core of the competition and quite frankly not fall victim to over-simplification.  So first off, you will see 3 blue ribbons in Linda’s group and three blue ribbons in my group.  Can we all agree that comes out somewhat equal at face value?  It should be noted that TWO of those ribbons come from categories I did not enter and two of my blue ribbons were in categories she did not enter.  However, one of my blue ribbons is in a category (wildlife) that she decided to push her way into.  Not only that, she entered TWO pictures in that category trying to simply shotgun her way to the top of the podium and she still lost to my squirrel (a shot she argued me out of putting in the HOI fair for what is now an obvious reason).  On the flip side, she beat my B&W raven but there is an evil I Hate Ravens lobby at work here – jury says…”+1 for Brian”.  Now let’s talk about the second places.  Can we at least all agree that seconds are inferior to first places?  .. and taking that to the next logical step forward, we should all be able to understand that more seconds is NOT a good thing.  Therefore it should be clear by association that less second places finishes is BETTER than more.  Taking that crisp logic into consideration, I have only one second place finish and Linda has .. wait for it .. TWO.  jury says .. “+1 for Brian”.  My apologies for having to get into the technicalities like this but this is apparently the things you have to get into to get the truth heard.  Feel free to take a little break if your head is hurting.

Next on the docket the missing color in Linda’s group.  If you look close at the two group pictures you will see something that stands out between the two.  That’s right, I’m talking about that white ribbon that was purposely moved to the side of the arrangement in an attempt keep my fans from seeing it.  Now, if both of us have the same color (as in the seconds) it requires a deeper dive into the relationship of that level to each other (as succinctly pointed out above).  However in this case there is nothing to compare because someone does NOT have that particular level of achievement and therefore it is much more clearer.  Before anyone embarrasses themselves and tries to justify that one of the other levels trumps third, it should be noted that I had already taken first in that same category so that logic is just right out.  Moving theory into practice, I see that I have one third place and Linda has zero so the jury awards another “+1” for Brian.

Since my lovely wife has decided to put all her eggs in one basket with this so called purple ribbon ruse I must effectively snap the handle.  She is all talk about this “Best in Show” award for one of her pictures and how that trumps all other discussion.  I find it disturbing that I have to point out that a win in the kiddie pool does not equate to a  hard fought battle in the Olympics.  Certain people have once again overlooked my Honorable Mention in the HOI fair (the area’s Olympics if you will) which carries significantly more weight than any other color obtained at any other local fair.  Since we were both blanked for the second year in a row in the HOI fair, my well earned HM still reigns supreme in the land.

Clearly, I will admit that Linda’s purple ribbon would cut into that lead a little bit… if in fact her ribbon was for best picture.   Before the fanfare starts up, let’s take a closer look shall we.  Indeed she does have a purple ribbon that appears from a size perspective to imply that it is better than the other ribbons we have received.  The jury was just about to award Linda her very first “+1” of the show when something caught their eye.  What do we have here?  What was originally passed over due to the excitement of the moment has come to light on a second look.  Linda did not win for best shot in the Adult competition – she won for best “PICURE”  I have no idea what the category even is … anybody?  What you see her is Linda finding a category that NOBODY knows about, having what appears to be the ONLY entry in that category and by default takes the best award in that obscure and bizarre event.  So… for those .. how did it go.. oh yes, “gullible” people out there, we must dismiss this Best in Show ribbon and expose it for what it really is.  Jury is forced to award a “-2” to Linda for behavior unfitting of a photographer. I should also point out that I convinced Linda to enter this particular picture so any awards given (if entered in a proper category) should really be distributed equally between us.

So let’s summarize just to prevent anymore biased comments.

Jury awarded:

+1 to Brian for blue ribbons

+1 to Brian for red ribbon

+1 to Brian for white ribbon

-2 to Linda for deception

tap tap tap, negate the sign, add back in…. that comes to a 5 point margin of victory combined with the uber points earned for the Honorable Mention and yes boys and girls we indeed have a winner.  So all those Woots and congratulations and baseless accolades so quickly given to Linda in the comments should now be recanted by the authors (groveling is highly recommended).  I am glad I can finally put this little issue to rest and just a little bit disappointed in my readers  … well, the ones who decided to take the quick out and simply based their opinions on biased response from my lively wife.