I attended my first comp. Ap.28-30 (Iowa) and was blown away! I had posted earlier on the subject,Comp. Jitters. and was uptight for no reason. For those of you that have never attended one you should. Jody Green was a deerhead judge at the show and gave a seminar. If you ever get a chance to attend one of his seminars, do so. He is a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker. His lecture was about adding attitude to deerheads, and he truely opened my eyes on the subject. My first comp. entry did well also, a second place in the professional division with a score of 83. I was pretty stoked since it was my first experience with a comp. and I have been doing taxidermy for only five years! After attending this comp. I realize now that they are not about winning , instead they are about the knowledge you can gain. If your goal is to improve your work, attend as many as you can, and go with an open mind. My only regret is that I waited five years before I checked them out. With the insight I gained I am sure will improve my commercial work. With that being said, I need to go mount a deerhead! Man I love my job!
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Shannon,
I've been attending the Iowa show now for 9 yrs now and enjoy every yr I go.
I myself have learned alot from the seminars.
I'm glad to see from your post that you understand why we have competitions.It's not the winning It's the learning experience.
Sure it's nice to win but learning from others is the main focus.
I wish more people thought that way.
I heard a few people were upset because of scores and not doing as well as they thought they should,but you will find that anywhere you go.
I thought we had a pretty good turn out this yr again but were down a few mounts from last yr.
Congrats on the 2nd place deer and hope to see ya there next yr .
Jeff