It's time to vote for the winners of the 2007 photo contest!

I am finished with my voting. It was mighty hard, but oh it sure was a lot of fun. I saw a few photographs in the mix that are outstanding....I think they could win some kind of professional photography award. Wow.

The voting process layout was great...kudos to whoever set that up...ya did good.

Nana3

Lots of marvelous photos here--harder than I'd expected, to narrow them down to only three--in some categories especially!

But this is fun. It's great to be able to see such a variety of photos--and in my own home, no less.

(Someone was talking about the issue of voting for his/her own photos. I'd already decided I couldn't--wouldn't feel ethical to me. But then I discovered--no problem. Most are clearly better than mine, anyway! I'm learning from this as an amateur photographer--an added bonus, I'd say.)

I have to say I haven't even been tempted to vote for any of my own yet--there are definitely much better ones out there. I don't think I'd feel right voting for my own anyway, but so far I haven't even had to think about it!

Well...
I now have carpal tunnel my rear is numb and my eyes look like some of the insects I just viewed!
Fantastic photos and a big applause to everyone that entered
It's going to be difficult choosing in some of the categories but I already have my overall favorite.
I can see it on the cover of the calendar already

Really enjoy the new voting process. Works like a charm for me... Dave!

I stayed up way too late last night finishing up 5 categories and I can't wait today until I have time to finish up. This is simply waaaay too much joy!

My understanding is that when the voting is over with and we have our calendars made, we get to choose the 12 pictures which go into making up the calendar. Is this right?

That sounds way too confusing to me. I'm sure the winners in each category will be on the calendar and not our own personal choices but I could be wrong.

pirl, I am not making myself clear. There will be more than 12 winners for 12 months out of the year.

Maybe the two extras will be both the front and back sides of the calendar?

Well, you have 12 months inside the calendar and the front cover and back cover .... maybe the back cover could be thumbnail pic's. And, what about inside the front cover and inside the back cover? Can you tell ... I'm wanting as many of the phot's as possible!

Since it is Dave's Garden Calendar I hope the front cover will be a garden of some sort, or one of the scenic photo's.

Great job to everyone who submitted their pic's .... it is really, really hard to narrow it down to three favorite's! We could have an assortment of calendars with all the really wonderful photo's y'all have submitted!

Gee, I'm really in a fix.
Just too many splendid pix.
Where a pro or rank beginner
Can become a floral winner.
But I voted without fudging,
Thanks to Dave for easy judging.
Next year p'raps I too will traffic
In a contest photographic!

(clap,clap)

how clever!

Dave,
in your answer to Gita, are you saying that you have to start from scratch in the thumbnails area? Or are the saved pictures still saved?

And what about my workaround in my similar question?

Well, I just finished voting in every catagory! Even the one for Insects, which I didn't really want to go there .... when I hear the word insect, I usually think of creepy crawly bugs ... then remembered that Butterflies and Moths are insects too! So, I had to take a peek .... and found some awesome photograph's to choose from there too!

Now, I can't wait to see who the winners are and to have the calendars be available for purchase!

Great Job Everyone!

I think you have to start from scratch--I tried going back to the thumbnails for a category that I had already voted in, and it gave me the option to see all of them, or to view my 140 favorites (when I initially voted, I had managed to narrow it down to 20 or so favorites). There were 143 pics in the category, so I'm not sure which 3 it was leaving out of my favorites, but it really does look like you'd be starting from scratch. But since you can see all the thumbnails at once, you'll probably remember the pictures a bit better and can go back fairly quickly and choose the ones you liked.

It is a sort of starting from scratch, except for those that you previously saved are still saved. Going back into the thumbnail view shows you all photos and you can elect to save additional ones from there into your saved photos...

This is my first year voting so I can't really compare, but it is still very time consuming (although fun!).

Idea for next year's voting to speed it up even more:

it would be nice if I could "save" from the thumbnail view without actually viewing it in full size to limit the amount of image loading and page hopping and window opening. Get all the potentials in one fell swoop. Often I can tell from the thumbnail that I won't be considering it at all. But of course you don't know until it is viewed. The time it takes to load one page of say 30 saved images is a lot less than 30 separate viewings.

or, if the thumbnails could be larger, that might speed it up too.

And I *am* on high-speed, although it doesn't sound it!

I still don't understand just when my vote is counted. Is it as soon as I have 3 favorites selected? Or do I have to navigate away from the page to actually cast the ballot.

Bravo! Besides the poem, I don't think I can find time to go through those many entries... Great job for all those contestants! Wow, wow.

Once you view your favorites in a category and rank them 1, 2 and 3 plus remove all the other favorites, you just go back at the bottom of the third picture and click return to the main page. It automatically will show you a big red yes that you have now voted in that category.

I am computer challenged but Dave has made this very simple for us.

gessiegail has it mostly correct. You don't have to remove all the other favorites, though. As soon as you select images for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, you are done and don't need to do anything else.

Going back to the main contest will then show you which contests you have officially cast your votes in.

dave

Yes, I saw the red YES. I know I voted. But I changed my mind on my 3 pics and changed them (via a back door) before I went back to the main page. I want to know which set of 3 pics got counted. my first 3 or my 2nd 3.

also, you don't have to remove all the non-winners to get the red YES.

So my first 3 counted. back door failed. got it.

Ok, Dave, I'm back on overtime, donuts please....

You can indeed change your vote. Just go back in, view your saved favorites, and mark a new image as your 1st, 2nd or 3rd favorite. Your last answer is the only one that counts. (i.e. if you change your vote, the new vote is the only one that's counted at the end)

Thanks as I thought the first second and third votes wouldn't count unless I removed the other favorites. We need that clarification, DAve.

ah-ah I see. Even after I have voted and have the red YES, I can still go see my favorites and change them.

So it is a good idea to NOT remove non-winners from saved in case I want to change my mind before voting closes.

Exactly!

I have a question about the date-time stamp on some pics. There are some photos that I like very much, except that the date-time stamp is across an integral part of the picture. Is there any way to successfully remove this if the photo is selected for the calendar? If not, I would likely not vote for an otherwise winning photo.

And it seems to me that I can make my preliminary selection at one time and come back at a later time to make the final selection. Is that correct? I'm thinking it might help in the final decision.

Ann

Regarding the date/timestamp on images: if a winning image has such a problem, then I would hope that the "original" image straight off the camera wouldn't contain that.

If it did, however, I would do my best to remove it using photo editing software prior to sending it to the calendar publisher.

Failing that, however, I would have a hard decision to make and ultimately might elect to send the 2nd place winner for that category if it wasn't marred with lettering.

In other words, please vote for the image you like the best, regardless of whether lettering is present.

Dave

Thanks, Dave.

What about going back later to finish voting?

I'm finding myself torn as I go through the images. For instance, some of the container gardens are very clever in their concept and design but the photography leaves something to be desired. Other images are really unusual in their artistic merit, but maybe the plants being shown are less than perfect. Hard to divide the gardener from the photographer in some cases. But I'm slowly getting there.

BTW, while I have hi-speed lite now, I've decided I like using the thumbnails. I can enlarge about 4 at a time and then go back and view them instead of waiting for each large photo to individually open on my screen.

Ann

You can certainly go back later to do the voting. The system will remember where you stopped and you can continue just as if you never quit.

I did it. There were a couple I really favored with either names or date stamps on them. I have professional type photo editing that could have removed them but I realize not everyone has that access. I hope people will keep that in the back of their minds next year. Also, some wonderful photos were in portrait or odd sizing that just couldn't be cropped and still keep the key points in the photo. I arbitrarily chose not to select them. My final selections would have been a bit different without those issues.

Astonishing! Who would have "thunk" insects just as fascinating and beautiful as our pets. I covet some of your cameras! Sometimes I had to vote for a favorite as the title soooo fit the picture.

Awesome photos!!!
Everyone should be commended on the selection turned in.
A job well done... makes choosing three very difficult!

Good luck to all!

Is it just me or are others having the same problem? I get to a point where the picture doesn't load when I click on a thumbnail and try to view the whole picture. It has happened with both methods. I don't know what is wrong, can someone help please as I haven't been able to finish most categories because of this problem.



This message was edited Nov 2, 2007 5:32 PM

I also found it hard to narrow the awesome choices down to 3. Getting to 5 or 6 was kinda hard but do-able. But from there getting to 3 is incredibly difficult. It helped a little if I visualized a calendar page. That helped clear out a few runner ups.

With so many great choices, IMO dates or poor cropping or any distraction had to be tossed in favor of perfection (to my beholder eye). I think the photo should be judged "as delivered", but maybe that is too strict.

And the dates will be found on the original straight from the camera so some editing or cropping would be required for a calendar page.


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This must be what heaven looks like! The roses were the hardest. I could get down to five, but then it was sooo tough!

jnana, as I posted yesterday, it may really take a long time to load the full page and it probably is your dial-up stopping it. If the page isn't completely loaded, it seems you can't proceed with clicking on the thumbnails to view them. You can right click in the blank image area and open up those pictures separately. Takes longer but at least you don't miss any.