Anyone else feels this whole thing has just completely fallen apart in the last several months?

I am meh over the whole thing at this point.

 

I still enjoy them, but have to admit there has been a lot more chit-chat and complaining and a lot less photos...

 

I'd get back into sumbitting and enjoying if started getting concrete about organization, rules, timelines, etc.

too much time during the contests right now imo. But i dunno.

Id just like to see it come back together.

 

I thought things seemed to work pretty well a while back. I liked having time to think about it.

I wouldn't mind having something to the effect of a contest starting on the 1st of every month, run for 3 weeks...ish, poll for 3-4 days, have the remaining days for the winner to decide on a new topic and have it back up on the 1st the next month.

 

Let's use this area as a discussion point for the Photo Contests.

 

We never really had any true organization regarding the start and end dates, the time period between contests etc. It just kind of worked out. I think we made a collective decision to shorten the submission period a few months ago, in the interest of spurring activity and having more contests, maybe this is where it started to "change"? Perhaps we should consider going back to a longer submission period.

Looking back at the previous contests, I see them varying wildly, but the shortest period was 2 weeks. Some went 4 weeks, some 3, etc. I think this was just a product of the previous winner setting the rules. But lately we have gone down to what, 5-7 days or something. I think it should be a minimum of 2 weeks. How about you?

 

The winner of the previous contest should decide the length of the next contest. I mean, they are the ones who create the thread anyway. Also, the length of the contest should be a minimum of 2 weeks to a maximum of a month.

 

I disagree, there needs to be a set length. period. 2 weeks, 3 weeks, etc.

Also, we get random winners who dont come online as often and then we are left WAITING for the next contest, and waiting, and waiting. There needs to be a default period where if the winner doesnt repsond in a certain timeframe, he is still the winner, but the contest choice defaults to the runner-up

 

This.

 

sounds good to me - I think standards would help the cause.

 

In an effort to reduce typos and/or mistakes people make in creating a new contest thread, can we have generic verbiage that lists all rules of the contest in one post, and the contest specific information in the title. This way all that needs to be done is copy the first post from the previous contest, and only edit the title to include the following:

theme
contest end date
HDR allowed or not

anything else I'm missing?

 

As far as I can remember, the post thread for each contest has essentially contained the exact same text for pretty much all of the contests we've held.

 

well, it has evolved somewhat. but for the most part yeah we've just been copying and pasting from the previous contest..

first contest:


#15:


#32:

current contest:

 

I've enjoyed the contests in the past, but I have to agree, I think they've fizzled a bit in recent months.

I think people would get so much more out of the contest if they would create something new each month. I carry 1.5TB worth of portable drives in my laptop bag and that only holds images from 2007 to present. I'm sure I could dig up an image from my archives for any contest that could possibly come up, but what fun would that be?

If people were creating new images and discussing what they went through for those images in the thread, I think it would be inspirational to everyone else. It's not like there's some big prize at the end of the month, so we might as well have fun with it.

We've had some good themes and some not so good ones. Since we're on a car forum and not a dedicated photography forum, we should probably be as open ended with the themes to make them as accessible to as many people as possible. Topical themes like Holiday Lights are bound to get more entries than something super technical. The David Hockney panos were fun to make, but I think we lost a lot of people there.



Finally, I agree with the timing comments. For the casual shooter, three weeks is a good amount of time to pull together a quality image. It probably takes a week to think of an idea, followed by a week to find time to shoot, and a week to reshoot and finalize the image for the web. 3 days is enough time for voting.

I wouldn't start a contest immediately after the last one ends either. Let's take a few days to talk to the winner and maybe make suggestions for the next round. Ultimately, the next contest would still be the winner's choice, but it would be cool to get the community involved in getting ideas.

 

I agree on the fun part, and I also agree on adding dialog to the mix. With each shot, let's hear some background on it, what your processes were, what other subjects you considered, things like that.

 

Not my problem people couldnt figure out how to make a simple Hockney style photo. People had no problem figuring out how to make the 3 story panels.

It was a good theme and a nice break from "go shoot a sunset, go shoot motion, etc."

People are stupid...show them a million visual examples of exactly what youre talking about and they'll still do something completely different.

 

I like the idea of posting a little blurb about the shots, too. And to posting something you took in during the contest window.

 

I think generally photogs are very emotional people and it's easy for them to get caught up in stuff.. and more often than not, make mountains out of molehills... I've seen this sentiment echoed at other boards as well. We just need to RELAX!!!

 

I have to admit, that I had no idea that any of these rules even existed. I won a previous contest, and just though "Yay.. I won" and never knew what was going on. Everyone kept posting things like "Get the new contest going", "cant wait for the next" etc - but nobody actually told me that it was my responsibility for like a week.

So I do like the idea of set rules / times. For the sake of ease - New contest on the 1rst of the month, open for 2 week, voting until the last day of the month? Easy enough to remember even if you're not on top of when the last one started?

Also - I know there is no budget, or anything like that. But would it be possible to throw in some AZ stickers or something for the winner? Might motivate people a little. Heck - I'd pitch in some money for a sticker-pool so that others in the future could have a chance at walking away with something.

 

I'm just wondering when we'll start doing the short film contests with half of the people here having 7Ds

 

Since we're just seeing what sticks to the wall here, I wanted to throw out an idea that I've been kicking around. Would anyone be adverse to having contests themed on some facet of equipment instead of just ideas? It would certainly have to remain pretty general just like our current "idea" themes are. I was just thinking themes like these might encourage a bit more participation.

-Point n' Shoot challenge (anything that isn't shot with a SLR)

-35mm or less (generic wide angle)

-Self timer shot with yourself in the picture

 

 

I'm open to it.

Another site I'm on has "theme" threads. They just do a different Theme weekly or bi-weekly, and people post pictures of that theme. There's no deadlines or prizes etc; it's not a contest. Maybe another related or totally separate option, it's nice because it eliminates any formality or seriousness, you just show your shots of a certain subject.

 

I kind of enjoy the contests..even though I've never won one.
A while ago they never seemed to be serious. And everyone seemed to be ok with the few rules there was.

Lately it seems like a lot of people (newer to the contests mainly) try to bend the rules all they can. It turned into "Lets see how we can think outside the box and/or try a new technique" to "OMGWTFBBQ can I do this, so I can have a better chance of winning!?!?"

I say we stick to how it used to be, and if something doesn't conform, than just throw it out per srika.

1. Picture taken during the time frame of the contest
2. Own interpretation
3. No chopping

....etc etc

 

I like the idea of standard timeframes. Start the contests on the first of the month, run for about 3 weeks, 3 days of voting and then the next contest start on the 1st of the next month.

My only real "demand" is that voting be held on at least two weekdays (i.e. not Friday-Sunday)

While I like the idea of getting more background information on each shot, I think this should be saved until after the voting. For the contest, I don't care if you had 5 hours of setup plus two reshoots or if you took a random snap while walking down the street. It's the shot that looks best that should win - blood, sweat and tears are irrelevant.

I like this idea. This would allow us to have focused (no pun intended) threads in addition to the random favorite pictures thread.

These could be started at any time by anyone... plus there is a much lower chance of Fail in starting one of these threads.

 

I would not be for making "Picture taken during the time frame of the contest" as being mandatory for all contests. I have no problem at all with it being optional and at the discretion of the prior contest winner when they're creating the next round.

 

Thinking some more, I would not want the Theme threads to take the place of the contests. They would just be fun threads.

Yeah I think another part of the reason for the change in the photo contests is the effort required to create and set up the poll thread, and then to setup the next contest thread.

 

Just out of curiosity, may I ask why?

Respectively, I would have to disagree.
I would enjoy having someone post a little blurb under their photo when they post their entry. Not as a requirement...but if they so wished. Maybe I approached these contests at a different viewpoint than others, but I always thought the main underlying idea was to challenge people to maybe try something they've never done before. Or just take it to a different level. That way when they get a shot they really like, they can share about it. Is the point of the contests just to win, and not to have fun and to share our thoughts and techniques in effort to collectively make us all better photographers? Personally, I would like to know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into getting the shot.

The only reason I would disagree here is because I feel like the 'yes, no, maybe so..' ideology when it came to these contests is what has caused the deterioration of them lately. Everybody starts questioning "Hey can I do this?" or "Oh, I thought we couldn't do that...we can now??" or vice versa. And then everybody starts jumping in at which point the contests thread because a debate on whether or not ________ can be done, or used, etc.




Sorry.
Just felt like I had to stir up some mud there.

 

On a related note, I was wondering what sort of participation we would get in image discussion threads where one image is posted and people write what they do/don't like about the image or why they do/don't think the image "does it" for them. These sorts of things seem to be fairly popular among Flickr groups. At least several of them that I frequent. The only thing I can't figure out is how we we would decide who picks the image we talk about.

 

have a contest?

 

Because many people, even contest entrants, do not visit the site over the weekends. It just allows for more inclusive voting results.


I agree that it is good to get more information about the shot, I just feel it should be held for discussion after the voting. I personally just think the end result should speak for itself with regards to the voting without being prejudiced by the process used to take the image.

Maybe having the image taken during the contest period would reduce participation too much. While I would prefer to have everyone go out and shoot for each contest, it doesn't always happen. Maybe at least limiting it to images taken in the last x months?

 

yeah, that's how I always looked at it from the start - no details about the shot and no discussion about the shot, until after the contest is over.
I think it's better to go in the direction of less complexity, than more. I mean, I think the interest is to make these more "friendly".

 

Whatever is decided on everything else, this is IMO an absolute must.

 

Maybe it should be encouraged but not mandatory. If we have a thread of people discussing images they took that month and what they did to get the shot, it would probably be encouraging to others to try something they normally wouldn't shoot.

 

 

I think the winners of the contests actually should spend some concrete time in setting up the next contest instead of changing the title of the contest, and having typos here and there. And set a reasonable time period. Not 5 flipping days. At that point I'd rather not even pick up my camera.