It's that time of year again! The 2006 DG Photo Contest!

I had trouble submitting photos too, since most of mine are of native plants and wildflowers, it is hard to lump those in with annuals and perennials.
Josephine.

I, too, feel it's very difficult choosing just two photos per category. I've saved them, like many others, all year long and to try and choose one over another is most difficult. I hope next year we can return to the categories of last year's contest.

I also haven't submitted any photos this year. There are way too many different perennials and annuals to choose.
Susan
=^..^=

I wish ya'll had been present when we went through the whole discussion on how to do this contest. We talked over the course of many days and I carefully considered all points made.

It's too late to change anything now, obviously, but next year I encourage you all to be a part of the planning thread and make your voice heard.

Dave

You are right Dave! I apologize for figuring this out after the fact. I promise to participate next year! I didn't expect anything to change this year.

I'm going to annoy some people with this post but that never stopped me before, lol.
I agree with Dave, more members should have spoken up during the discussion.
ALSO, see Terry's post (3rd one down) on this thread. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/667010/ where the photo contest was almost canceled because it got too big and complicated last year.
There were over 4200 entries, remember?
I too had a difficult time selecting only 2 pics per category. I searched my files and copied all the pics I thought were contest quality into a 'contest' file, then whittled it down from there. It took a major effort.
I like photo contests, I've entered a few this year. Never has there been more than ONE category and only ONE entry per member. We should be very happy to have such an accommodating Admin group.
Andy P

I'm not at all annoyed Andy, but I still would like a few more subgroups next year, but not half as many as last year-I agree that the contest was too complex and we should keep it simple. Anyway that's next year! It will be interesting to see how it works out this year. Life is always rather experimental.

We would all love to see the special pictures you aren't putting in the photo forum anytime of the year. Just because you post them there doesn't mean you can't put them in a contest the next time round. So show your beauties!!

dave and Saraskeeper, by the time I checked the thread about the photo contest, the narrowing of the categories was a done deal. I wished I had checked it sooner so that I could have made my voice heard. This is my fault for not remembering to look for the discussion thread sooner. Limiting the entries to 2 per category was a great idea.

Saraskeeper, I have over 1600 images posted to the PlantFiles to go through. Like Frostweed, a lot are native plants and wildflowers that just can't compete with other annuals and perennials.

But enough said after the fact ...

Exactly when does the voting begin? This may have been asked before and I'm sorry if it has... I must have missed it.

Thanks,
Donna

I believe Dave said December 1st.

Good advice for everyone.....check the Dave's Garden Forum each day you visit the site. Important news is always posted here. I tend to look at only my watched threads if I'm short on time, but I also look here..."just in case."

Very good advice. :o)

I'll defend the category/submission limit decision ;o)

Consider if you were invited to submit a photo or piece of artwork to a competition. You would have to decide on your own which one is your "best" work to submit for the competition - the judges won't let each submitter send in their entire portfolio to be judged.

Here, you're given the latitude to submit several images. However, by placing some reasonable limits on the number of categories and submissions, it puts the burden on the photographer to screen (or pre-judge) their own work - that may not be fun, but it's fair. The "judges" (i.e., the DG community) can then have the pleasure of selecting their favorites from a choice few entries, instead of trying to fairly judge thousands of unscreened entries.

Edited to say: Ditto to Andy/Sarahskeeper's comments (sorry......I skimmed past them, but on re-reading, I realized he said essentially the same thing - just more succinctly!)

This message was edited Nov 29, 2006 7:57 AM

Even though I wasn't a subscriber a year ago, it seems to me that the limits that have been set for 2006 are reasonable. I like to look at photos, but I think I'd run out of both time and interest if there were multiple sub-categories and/or more entries permitted per category. Consequently, I don't think I'd feel comfortable voting if I hadn't actually seen all the entries.

I didn't have hundreds of photographs to choose from for my own submissions, so I had no problem with the limits. However, if I did have to go through a culling process to select and limit my photos, I wouldn't mind doing that. Besides, I think the more streamlined contest means that more voters will see and remember our photos (for the reasons stated in the first paragraph; I doubt I'm the only person whose time and interest might hit a wall during this busy season).

I agree with Terry's reasoning. I remember viewing some pictures last year that were just dreadful and thinking what a waste of time it was to even view. Like a lot of people, my eyes crossed too many times from viewing so many pictures, and I gave up voting.

Not saying it's necessarily bad or that it is in fact happening... but from reading some other forums, it appears that some folks might be using photo editors and merging multiple photos into one for the contest... again, I could be wrong and I hope so. IMHO (In my humble opinion), I don't think that is right. I think photos for a legit photo contest should be unchanged from the original. Just my opinion. After all... it's a photo contest... not a photo editing contest.

Just my $0.03 worth.

Donna

Donna I agree with you there, with the exception of cropping.

It's not a matter of cramming as many pics in as you can to show everyone either, I certainly wouldn't vote for a compilaton of photos into one pic. I just had a thought, what if everyone votes for their own photo! What a scream that would be! I guess (hope) there will be voters without an entry in some categories.

My full £'s worth!

I personally like the way the contest is set up, but could never vote for myself. There are just too many talented people here at DG for me to actually compete with....I enter for fun. As for editing, enchancing, ect. my pictures, like wallay1 I only crop. I don't like coloring, ect. it then becomes the computors creation, not Mother Natures and mine.

I didn't even think of cropping. I take too many photos to use photoshop anymore!

Well, I guess my photos could use some cropping, but they're entered just the way they came out: What I saw is what you get.

I only crop if the background is too "busy" and will take away from the subject. I like the "what you see is what you get" attitude!

I just took a peak at some of the photos that have been submitted (there has to be some benefits to being the webmaster!!) :) and I have to say "WOW". This is easily going to be the hardest contest to judge. Almost every single picture is beautiful and each one is worthy of winning on its own.

By forcing only two entries per person per category, it really did limit the entries to only the best of the best. I'm impressed!

Voting begins tomorrow!

Dave

Good job, Dave! Can't wait.

Don Ü

Mr. Dave, is there any chance that a token prize could be offered to the winners? Something simple like a DG T-shirt or hat. I understand that is a whole new issue but I thought I'd ask.
Andy P

How many days is voting going to be open? Also, how many votes does a person get?

Thanks,
Donna

This message was edited Nov 30, 2006 3:03 PM

Andy,

Sending a prize is a good idea but it would mean my sending out 15 prizes and that's expensive for me. I don't think this year that's going to be possible. Next year we should talk to some gardening companies ahead of time and see if they want to sponsor it by providing prizes to the winners (we've done this in the past with some mixed results....)

Donna,

Voting is open from Dec 1st through Dec 15th. Each person may give a "thumbs up" to as many pictures as they wish. In the end, the pictures with the most "thumbs ups" wins. Simple!

dave

Some of you that can't narrow down pictures, please post them on the photo forum or the appropriate forum so we can still see them!!

Dave, that's fine. I just thought I'd ask, nothing ventured.........

Badseed, most of my meager entries have already been posted.
Andy P

Dave - maybe the fact that I'm still happily gardening on Nov. 30th has me weary but.... we each get one vote per category, correct?

Oh, no. 2 of the photos I entered have part of another photo in them to give a closer view of the plant. I do this with al ot of my photos. I had better delete them and just add the original, huh. Please tell me now before the entry time closes.

This message was edited Nov 30, 2006 8:00 PM

Dave has done an extraordinary job each year with this project, with exceptional patience. Thanks !!!

Just an opinion below ............

True photography has historically always extended itself from the camera into the darkroom. There's no money involved in this contest. It's supposed to be fun. Why stifle individual creativity ? I'll always vote for whatever appeals to the eye. Creativity just takes it to the next level which is where everyone should strive to be. I'm sure Ansel Adams touched up a few of his published photos.

I think this contest business is being way too over "thunk" I assumed it was going to be like life, the good, the bad and the ugly. No rules beyond the numbers. I am hoping to see peoples passions, joys, loves and humor more than I am hoping to see an award winning photo deserving of the Pulitzer prize. This was for me going to be a intimate viewing of DG People's private world from the comfort of my library. Please excuse my poking fun to those of you who are truly gifted photographers. I assume that you should and will take this "contest" seriously and it will be apparent to even me. One more day to click away! I can't wait to enjoy every one's entries. I entered some goofy ones, some sentimental slop and some that were just pretty posies and maybe one that I thought was just fine (my DH took it). Thumbs up to all & lighten up! Patti

Good luck to all who enter. It's been a fun kind of angst.

I see we are getting close to having 1,000 entires!!!
I for one am getting excited viewing all the entries.
Everyone provides such wonderful Eye Candy.!!
Good Luck everyone & Have Fun

OK, mine are all in and I must say I entered a couple of photoshopped pieces that I just plain had fun with. I thought the 'miscellaneous' category worked perfectly for those. I agree in theory that the photo should be 'raw' but I've also seen some really creative stuff here on DG using photoshop/picasa/etc and since I didn't see it forbidden, I decided to add a couple. Those who don't agree don't vote for these photos, right?

Dave, I think it's really much, much better to have limited it the way you did. Last year I didn't enter a thing and only looked through maybe part of one category before throwing up my hands in frustration and not voting at all.

Can't wait until tomorrow to see all the entries.

OPEN.......OPEN........OPEN!!!!!!!!

Can someone post a link to where we can view the photos of the contest? I know I am overlooking it somewhere!
Thanks,
Teresa

Dave will put up a link when he gets it all put together...and I'm anxiously waiting too....

I like the format and the size of this year's contest much better...last year was so big, it was unmanageable. I like limiting the categories and the amount of entries one can submit...makes you only put in your best stuff.

OK, I guess I am in to big of a hurry! I enjoyed looking at the pics last year but it was overwhelming with so much.

Melody, are you getting any snow flurries? We had a few early this morning.