Recently, while still in the field on a shoot, I caught myself thinking that what I was shooting would be perfect for this year's contests. I actively decided at that moment that I would no longer enter contests.

My clients still enter the Pollies and Reeds each year, and work driven by my photographs wins awards each year. That is perfectly fine. We all want our work to be seen and recognized, and I am no different.

But for the time being, I don’t want to allow myself to get caught up in thinking about how the photograph will be received before I make it, and to be taken out of the moment and break the flow of my creative process.