Jazz not for everyone

I haven’t forgotten about chess, but I’d like to share a story with you.

Every year, not far from Melbourne, there’s an event where over a million spring-flowering bulbs are on display, including more than 900,000 tulips. The Tesselaar Tulip Festival is an annual event you can’t miss! We first visited this beautiful garden more than 15 years ago. While we don’t make it every single October, we’ve returned many times. These days, of course, I experience the vibrant display through the lens of my camera, always aiming to capture grand landscape shots. Since it’s a family event, the festival organizes themed weekends to enhance the experience: Turkish, Dutch, and Jazz weekends, where the highlights are the food and live music.

But jazz isn’t for everyone! I realized this when I saw a little boy who clearly wasn’t enjoying the loud music in front of a small band. This moment turned out to be a stroke of luck for me, as I quickly recognized the photographic potential and managed to capture him with the band. I’m usually a slow photographer, spending a lot of time adjusting manual settings—but not this time.

I had never entered a photo competition before. Given that it took me years even to get an Instagram account, you can imagine I wasn’t in a hurry to share my work. But two years ago, I came across an Australian photography competition with the theme ‘LOUD.’ Instantly, this photo came to mind. I searched for two more photos (since we could submit up to three), but I knew this shot was the standout candidate.

A few weeks later, the results came in: “Jazz Not for Everyone” had placed second. Not bad for a first entry! And the top three winners from Australia would go on to the World Photocup Competition. I can’t quite put into words how that felt.

And the comments I received:

"... a thoughtful black and white image

putting the viewer into a child’s

perspective of the concept of ‘Loud’.

Good use of tonality and composition. "