I think most of us POVers have a hidden desire to win the IRTC, but the more I've
entered the more I've realized this isn't the
point.

Just because an image wins doesn't mean it's the best.  Art is so subjective there can
never be a best.  Everyone has a different
idea about what is appealing and what's not.  I love raytracing, but in general have
very little time to actually spend working on
images.  The IRTC gives me a broad topic to think about, a deadline, and some
guarantee that a large audience will at least look at
my work for a few seconds.  This spurs me to squeeze the time into my busy life to do
what I love to do.  Does my heart race when I
see "the results are in"?   Sure, but no matter what the results, as long as I'm happy
with the look and feel of my image, who won
or lost is irrelevant.  More important are the comments.  Comments, good or bad, are
proof that you inspired a reaction in your
audience.  If I received absolutely no comments on an image, I might then feel like a
loser, knowing that my effort wasn't even able
to invoke a complaint. ;-)

Don't enter to win.  Enter to learn and grow.  To be honest, my mind hasn't even
associated a name with the current winning image.
But over time, seeing consistently artistic and well executed images from certain
individuals brings more credibility and name
recognition than any single win.  Let's take Gilles as an example.  Gilles isn't a
famous POVer because he won the IRTC.  He's a
famous POVer because he consistently does artistic, well executed work, and pushes the
boundaries of what can be done with our
humble POV.

Don't enter to win.  You'll just set yourself up for disappointment.  Enter so that
you're part of the POV community.  Enter so that
there's a permanent record of your growth as a digital artist.  Enter so that you can
learn to accept the infinite number of
opinions that your work will inspire in people.  Enter so that I can look forward to
viewing and commenting on your next and better
image.

Andrew Wilcox

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