Bias

 Over this last weekend I attended a judges training weekend, run by the Photographic Society of New Zealand. These are great weekends to either learn about judging or check you are doing the right thing. Also a great weekend to catch up with or meet new friends.
So can you dissect an image, your own or someone else's, can you see the story they are trying to tell you, is it obvious, or does the image ask more questions than gives you answers,  is it balanced, does it have colour harmony, are the elements in the image, working harmoniously together, to add strength to the image or do the elements in the image work against one another. You as an assessor, even assessing your own work, have to look at the image with an open mind, leave your bias at the door. We have all at one time or another, if you enter competitions, have had bad judging, generally caused by bias or prejudice.
 It is not easy to stand in front of a whole room of strangers and give an assessment of the images presented in a competition, it is a lot of work and time.