One of my major hobbies are photography. I’m a ‘do it yourself’ photographer, who has not yet planned  to dedicate the hobby to a proffesional discipline. I have now been shooting images since 2004 and have moved into the digital photography in the recent years. My efforts have worthfully paid off as i won the second place in the Copenhagen Photo Marathon 2008. This event has a history of 20 years and is a well challenging event for the hardcore photography enthusiast. I did come across some estranged enthusiasts who repeatedly have participated this event with no luck. On this page, i’d like to share my recipie to success with their dilemma in perspective.

In the recent years, this event have become more strict, strenous and challenging since they decided to run the Photo Marathon for 24 hours/24 topics, which gives you an average of an hour to capture each topic. Sleep is something you have to put aside while you participate in this event.

Here are my tips for any Foto Marathon aspirant:

1) Know your subjects. One has to know the town in-out, keep an eye on everything that seems to be interesting as a photograph. See the world as a photograph. Take more pictures, practice.

2) Show your works and welcome criticism. Its hard for one to know if he or she is developing their talent unless one gets feedback from a third person. Put your works up in sites like Facebook or Flickr. The Facebook is the better alternative as you get honest feedback from non-photo enthusiasts, while on Flickr one often tend to get barter-vote on flickr (i vote you-so you vote me).

3) Title your pictures. This is a good way to practice for theme photography. Title the picture in your mind even before you upload or shoot that scene. In this way you train your imagination.

4) Use a simple camera. The more complicated and advanced your camera is the lesser you concentrate on your subject. Having the latest gear does’t always assure you the best picture. remember that you are competing against time. The judges don’t care if the picture is shot with wideangle, telephoto or macro lens. All thay care is how the subject translates to the theme. carry a tripod for night-time shots though.

5) Surprise the judges. keep in mind that the Foto Marathon (in this case) has been holding this even for almost 20 years. They have see it all. show them a thing or two they havn’t yet seen. Points come easy for undiscovered frames. Avoid places like Christiania or Nørrebro – those places are over-rated, over used and over exposed !

6) Be genuine. Do not copy, do not try to immitate a shot you thought looked good somewhere else. Dishonesty is easily traceble on a photograph for the trained eye. If you see 23 pictures of mine, you can easily pick out that picture that is not mine.

7) Put in maximum effort. This is a challence that takes place once in a year, so get out and get moving. Show the judges that you mean what you do. Be it travelling a few kilometers to get that good frame or squeezing in that prop that took a few hours to make. Points come easy for efforts.

8) Seek help from friends. Keep your friends on standby. Your friends are othen the best models for candid photography. You can either use them as subjects or seek inspiration when your ideas run dry.

 9) Go for the unique shot. If when for a topic, you recollect this brilliant idea to shoot but realise that the idea is too common, and are sure that a few other contestants will surely come across the same idea as well – Then, DROP IT.  Warmboot your brains !