It's time for the 2007 DG Photo Contest!

These are my opinions and I am not attacking anyone for theirs. First of all as I stated in last year's photo contest, I don't think that it is appropriate for people to state the reasons that they did or did not vote for a photo before the contest has ended. It influences other people's choices which may or may not be the intention of the person(s) who stated their opinions. By some statements posted here, some of the photos which are being eliminated are easily identifiable. If vertical photos were not supposed to be entered because this is a "calendar" photo contest, it should have been so stated in the rules of the contest. I entered vertical photos because the scene had to be vertical and I had a lot of horizontal ones I could have entered instead. Some photos of animals that have the animal as a small percentage of the photo may be showing the animal as well as the beautiful affects the animal may have on their surroundings which is the essence of the photo (such as rippling water). Again, one of the disregarded photos can be easily identifiable. If public garden photos are to be immediately eliminated, then they should not have been allowed in the category to begin with. Several public garden photos have won in past contests. Perhaps if the photographers had known that no one would even consider their photos, they would have entered other ones instead. Again, these photos are immediately identifiable. If rose petals are cut off, maybe the photographer wanted you to see the beauty of the center of the bloom. Some if us like to see the beauty in the details. To make opiniated statements as to the value of a photo before the voting has ended to me is unfair. Perhaps the criteria used to eliminate the above described photo types will cause others to immediately disregard many excellent images with no consideration for their beauty. Also, to imply that some photos just aren't "good" enough to be entered in the contest made me feel quite sad. Some winners last year were not the best focused nor did they have the best contrast. I applaud all who entered photos and have enjoyed viewing them all.

I think everyone has different taste and is going to judge based on different things. Some people like extreme closeups of flowers, some don't. Some like a smallish animal in a beautiful surrounding landscape, others would rather just see the animal. I think that's why the rules are fairly open--that way everyone can take pictures that make them happy, and when they put them in the contest, everyone will find something they like to vote on. And as far as people discussing why they did/didn't vote for things, personally nothing I've read here has changed how I chose to vote for pictures, I like what I like and I voted for the things I liked and I imagine most people would say the same thing.

I mostly made my comment because several said they didn't even place their own in the running after seeing others, several of mine got notched down too when it got to selecting the finals. I also submitted a couple of verticals because I figured as mentioned above, that configuration could still be used with space on either side, this isn't a professional calender after all where a publisher only selects from horizontal images in most cases.
I hope I didn't offend anyone by my comments.

Oh yeah, no one here changed my opinion of beauty ;) I think it would take years and years of brainwashing to do that- oh wait, i guess that is pretty much the definition of a BFA

funny to see how everyone has different definitions of what they term as a perfect shot though- really interesting, and I'm not being sarcastic either- it would make a great phd project


This message was edited Nov 4, 2007 2:12 PM

This has been so much fun, but I've only done the first round in each category. I agree with htop - some comments here could sway how others vote. This contest had very few rules - therefore, I feel all pictures should be given fair consideration unless they specifically broke one of those rules. As for pics in the misc category that should have belonged elsewhere - I personally tried not to use it as an overflow category. However, I know that one of my pictures would seem by others to belong in the scenic category instead. But we have to remember that everyone interprets a picture differently. The reason I put my scenic picture in the misc. category was because (A) yes, I already had 2 pictures in the scenic category and (B) because the picture is much more than just scenic to me - it does make a statement that I felt was appropriate for the misc. category. However, I do realize that not everyone will see in the picture what I saw in it...

Anyway - that's just my two cents. This contest is a lot of fun.

Lots of discussion going on here!

Last year 278 members voted on the photo contest.

So far this year, 428 members have voted (and we're only 1/3 of the way through the timeframe for votes!)

dave

wow that's pretty impressive.... just shy of double from last year.... good for you Dave & good for the members too!

There are so many pics, I have to take mini breaks. Select a few favorites, come back. Few more, come back. By then, I've forgotten my original favs, and I can go through the whole group sort of unbiased.

I'm one of those persons who gets paralyzed when there are too many choices. It's one reason I do NOT enjoy shopping. I get off the elevator in the clothing dept., look at all those clothes racks, and turn right around, get on that elevator and go home!

Same thing with those gigantic food menu billboards in some restaurants. I see all those choices and could stand there for the whole lunch hour trying to pick a meal!

Just like to reiterate my suggestion to have a panel of DGer judges whilttle the categories down to the top 25 in each category, and present these as a slate of choices for the gen'l voting public. Post ALL the submissions where anyone who wants to dredge through all 2000 pics can do so at their leisure...Again, just a suggestion...

Dave you said how many LY votes versus TY votes. what about the numbers on the photos entered, LY versus TY. are they more?

I just had to take a look after Tillysrat asked the above question...
Last year there was 1,056 entries.
This year there is 2,151 entries.
What a turnout!

Thats a lot of photos, no wonder its so hard to vote to many great ones to chose from LOL, wonder what next years will bring?

This has been a fascinating discussion, but at 250 posts, I'm finding the thread takes quite awhile to load now, even with my hi-speed lite. So I am reluctantly going to stop watching it.
Ann

tillysrat and GardenGuyKin ... just wanted to say that I have been travelling around in your neck of the woods. I am staying in in Duvall, Washington right outside of Seattle with my stepdaughter and her family and having a great time. I am enjoying seeing all of the beautiful plants and the fantastic mountains plus being in cool weather. What a great area of the country.

htop - I have too say they are all great areas of the country (having been in many of them) they all have their own personality. be it the landscape, weather or architecture. Each area of the country is different, and each, in it's own special. The common factor I have found is that each area offers different, yet the same "like minded" people to meet. I have not met them all yet. But hope to. Will not happen.. but "shoot for something, you might get close enough".

htop
Happy to hear you are enjoying your visit and our part of the states. The PNW is a beautiful area and you most likely are enjoying the wonderful Fall colors. OH and the cool weather! Enjoy the remainder of your trip and take plenty of photos!
:)
Kin

Take the ferry over to the kitsap peninsula and take a drive to Neah bay most lovely area to see. The rain forest is in that area.
Injoy your visit to the PNW

Dyson, it is so true about each area of the country having its own personality. It is great meeting so many interesting people and seeing such magnificent scenes.

Kin, I missed the "peak" of the fall colors ... most trees had already lost most of their leaves. I'll have to come in October next year. However, there are still some beautiful colors to see. I had visited Maui a couple of weeks back. With the cloudy days, mists, fog and rain, I have been trying to perfect taking photos in low light and rainy conditions. I am used to trying to keep the bright Texas sunlight from fading out my subjects. :o) So, I have had a lot of learning experiences will taking photos which is great because I used to shy away from taking photos on cloudy days.

tillysrat, I hope we have time to go to the peninsula and visit the Neah Bay area. We leave at 4 am tomorrow morning. 11 days flies ny so quickly. If we don't have time this visit, we will surely go there next time. Thanks for the suggestion. I would lone to visit that area in the spring or summer. My step-daughter says that there is a wildlife preserve there. I would like to compare the vegetation to the vegetation found in the rain forests on Maui.

It has been a wonderful trip and now we must return to San Antonio which has been unseasonably hot and dry. Maybe, we'll take back some refreshing cool and hopefully wet weather.

Yes we do have a wild life park it is in Sequim, Wash. which is funny I have lived hear for 20 years and never been but I have been to the one in Winston, Oregon, I would love to share some of the photos I took of the rain forest, and the Ho river a trip my DH and I took. But I have to scan and down load them, which is some thing I have planed to do one of these days, their are from a 35 mm camera not a digital. and some of them are awesome. would love to share them. Next time you visit let me know maybe we can plan a trip? could be fun.
I'm trying to type this between kitty paws, My Sassy is on my desk with her paws hanging over the keyboard, to funny LOL
Tilly

I am as near finished with voting on the 2007 photo contest as i will get, not enough time to finish all. Was wonderful to see all the absolutely great photography. We have some excellent photographers.

Dave has the contest set up so very well and i really did enjoy all the photos. It was so very difficult to try to pare the photos down to the three best, and then try to pick the one best .

Again i congratulate all the really wonderfull photographers and their beautiful and very interesting pictures. We are all winners when we can view such beautiful photography.

Donna

Tilly, Sassy looks very comfortable there. Your photo brought a smile to my face. :o) Next time I'm in your area, I will let you know.

rutholive, Dave does have the contest well designed this year. I just wished I could have selected my top 3 to 5 favorite photos without having to choose first, second and third. i debated with myself a lot this year.

Next year we'll allow you to select your top 5 instead of 3. That should make it a lot easier!

Hurray! Thanks, Dave!

Hay
I like that alot,

There are so many amazing pictures - it's so difficult to choose! I still have 4 categories to go...

I have voted on all categories, but it was too difficult,all the pics are great! If I may suggest, for the future contests, it will be better if we'll have some more categories like : landscapes,sunsets,seasonal.

The best part of the contest was enjoying all the wonderful photos submitted -- what a treat! It will indeed be easier to pick 5 favorites rather than just three... I keep going back and juggling my top picks!

One thing that I'd have found helpful... I had a hard time eliminating many photos on the first pass, and that meant I often ended up with 150 or more "favorites" to sort through. Every time I clicked on "eliminate this one," all the photos were shuffled a little or reloaded or something, and I had to start scrolling again from the top. Would there be a way to go down through the favorites and maybe click a checkbox for "eliminate this one" and then do all the eliminations at once when you got to the bottom of the set?

I know there are pro's and con's to every sorting method!

Jill, I'm with you,it would be better !

Or when you eliminate one to go back to where you left off instead of starting all over again.
Just a thought.

Right. It's the going back to the top (and occasionally seeming to shuffle the choices) that tends to throw me.

I agree, when you only have so much time to do things, and then you get all mixed up on what was what, very frustrating, To me anyway

I thought is was easy to pick out of my favorites....I would save the ones I liked to my favorites.....then after I had finished doing that I looked up and down my list of favorites.... picked out my first choice, second choice then third....looked up and down to make sure those were the ones, and then left it at that....it's like if you take too long looking at the tomatoes, or apples or anything, then it is harder......go with your first gut feelings and they are usually the best....

I had fun!!! :-)

I didn't have any trouble voting or picking. It was fun to see so many great shots. I thought the winners would be announced on the 15th? Where do find them? Oops, just found the post about how now it is the 19th. Darn! I was excited to see who won!

This message was edited Nov 16, 2007 6:35 PM

Jill,

I am glad you brought that up. I did not like it either!
Always having to start over....

Gita

I think it was only hard with categories where I'd managed to save 180 "favorites!"

Actually, I think Dave did a bang-up job programming the voting system for the photo contest this year, so I really do not mean to complain. :-)

Dang. I got busy and kept putting off voting on a few catagories. But, I did vote on qutie a few. I can't wait for the results!

Great photos and had fun submitting and voting. Good Luck to all that posted photos!!!!

It would make the final selection easier if you had the option to see all your choices together as thumbnails, for comparison.

I kept scrolling up and down, up and down.

Oh yes, I did enjoy the pictures posted for the contest. Some of them are absolutely beautiful. I have voted for all but two sections.

Going through the steps was a bit tedious. I did not like the shuffling in the end to choose the order of merit. I hope next time round, it will be more user-friendly.

Hmmmm. I thought it was presented wonderfully! I think it was a fabulous format.

I thought the 2007 Photo Contest was great, and I even got through all the whole more than 2000 photos. and judged. But only agreed with the judges in voting for 5 of the winners and not the same order as the judges, if that makes any sense.

I think we were all winners in getting to see so many wonderful photos.

Donna

Oh, nooo, I didn't get to finish voting! My dialup was down all day yesterday, and I thought I read that voting will be allowed through the 19th. Drat! Will all my votes just be thrown out, since I didn't do all the categories? And will I still be able to at least see all the ones I missed? What fun to view all those wonderful pics!