Machinery Advice

Jürgen Lobert is the judge for our Machinery/Open competition on January 26, 2026. Below he talks about what constitutes a "machine" and what he'll be looking for when judging the submitted images. You can also view some of his machinery photos below.

What I would expect from a competition topic “Machinery” are a number of things. First and foremost, and that applies to any special competition category, really: the topic needs to be the MAIN part of the composition as well as the main focal point of the image. Showing a tractor somewhere in a landscape, even if the machine might be very interesting, but is only a minor portion of the composition, will not score well, because it will be more viewed as a landscape with some machine in it. Even if that is a gorgeous, well executed sunset image, it doesn’t match the category.

Not everything industrial is a machine. Make sure that it really is something that is or used to be actively running. Dictionary.com’s definition of machine is “an apparatus consisting of interrelated parts with separate functions, used in the performance of some kind of work” and “a mechanical apparatus or contrivance; mechanism.” That means, a bunch of pipes coming together are not a machine. It’s supposed to be an active object (even if it is rusting away and hasn’t run in decades). An industrial complex, building or chimneys are not a good match. There is lots of machinery inside, but your photo will not show those. Cars, buses, trains, airplanes, ships, are technically machines, but a much stronger entry would be to show the engines of those, the actual machines. Cranes, backhoes or such would make better entries as well.

Active machinery is fine, so is abandoned, old and dysfunctional machinery.

Color or black and white doesn’t matter. Color may create a mood or emotion, or tell the story better, but black and white may illustrate the machine better by showing its gritty texture better.

Daytime, night time, light painted images, HDR and panoramas (vertical or horizontal) are all fine.

Keep your “good photography” guidelines in mind: composition, technical execution, impact. The better and the more intriguing you show us your machinery, the higher it will score.

Have fun selecting your images!  - Jürgen Lobert