Announcing the winners of the 2007 photo contest!

I have not followed the other Photo Contest thread (and it's too long to read!) so someone may have already suggested this. I think two additional categories should be considered - Foliage and Best Caption.

I think I owe everyone an apology! I wasn't here last year to know that everyone is extremely sensitive about altering photos. My posting only goes back to January of this year and I didn't even know that modifying pictures with the big fancy photo programs wasn't even allowed.

My sincere apologies to everyone who participated.

That's interesting - my first thought was that none of the ones I chose as firsts where winners in any category. I must be out of the mainstream too!

I didn't look, and didn't vote, but checked the winners and they are outstanding!! And if so few voted for them (here on this thread) there must be some awesome "losers" - I'll have to check all of them out.
(I tried to vote in one category, but it took me too long and it was so hard to choose, that I just quit. Meant to get back to it, but life took over...)
That is going to be one nice calendar!

I did pick a couple that were in the Top 3, but most of my votes were not the majority winners. I think that only shows that many of the photos received votes. This was a fun contest.
Teresa

I too, want to congratulate everyone who posted their pictures. They were all wonderful!! And I know the calendar will be outstanding!!
Thanks everyone!!!!!

Dave----

I have a question.

Are there any controls over WHO votes for any one photo and how many times that same person votes for the same photo?
In other words--is there a limit of how many times any given person/member can vote for the same photo over a period of days?
Or their family memebers or relatives signed in under their name???

I only ask this, as some of the winning photos sure do not seem to have the quality to be #1--or #2--or even #3.
I realize that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", but are we not voting here on the "BEST" photo in each category?

There were so many quality photos, and I am shocked at the ones that, actually, got 1st place!!! It almost seems that there was "something going on".......

I am not one to ... and moan, but I DO have a great eye for a quality photo. I DO realize that even that is subjective.

How come a , fuzzy, out of focus picture of something could win 1st place in a category that has a zillion great photos???????

Just wondering.....................Hmmmmmmmmm........

Gita

Nobody gets to vote more than once--if you go back into the voting and vote again, it overwrites the votes you made the first time. Same goes if anyone else logged in with your username, their votes would overwrite whatever you had put in. So nobody can cheat and vote multiple times. Everyone has their own definition of what makes the "best" photo (otherwise if everyone had the same taste and the same judging criteria, we'd just let Dave pick all the winners and be done with it!). So some of the winners weren't to your personal taste, or weren't the best photo based on how you were judging, but obviously they were to a number of other people or else they wouldn't have won (and honestly I don't recall any of the winners being fuzzy and out of focus)

I don't see any winners or runners-up that don't deserve to be there. They're all fabulous photos! Granted, most of them weren't my choices, but choosing favorites is such a subjective process. My choices were based completely on my personal emotional responses to the photos. If I had been basing them on photographic skills or composition, my choices would have been completely different. I'm glad others were more objective than I. The calendar will be more striking with these photos than it would have been with most of my picks.

Liz - I'm glad you were able to address any questions about the voting so that all the winners can be assured they won fair and square!! Fantastic kudos to all the winners and to so many others who submitted terrific photos! Really LOVELY!!!

Gita, if you dmail me privately which one(s) you suspect foul play, I can double-check the votes and make sure it was authentic. That should set everyone's mind at ease.

Congratulations to all the winners !!

Those who didn't win--don't feel bad. I only voted for 2 or 3 of the ones that did win. All of pictures were sooooo good !! I wish I could have a calendar of the ones I picked to win. :) There was one photo I recall of the "3 shades of beef" -that was wonderful. and the one with all the colored tulips--Fabulous! The bats --wow!! You are all winnners !!!!

Dave's community is made up of gardeners. Some might also be good photographers, but in general the interest here is in gardening. If someone doesn't know much about photography, they don't necessarily know what to look for in terms of photographic merit. So they vote based on whether they like the picture - regardless of whether or not it is perfectly focused, a great composition, or the right exposure, etc. When a picture is judged based on something so subjective as personal taste, the results are naturally going to be varied and unexpected. That's what makes it interesting and fun. If Dave's was a website directed at photographers, the photo contest most likely would have been judged far differently as the community itself would have been looking for different criteria. Overall, I think all the photos are great and it was just fun to be part of it.

This message was edited Nov 22, 2007 9:25 AM

Did anyone else have trouble voting? I only tried one category, but when I voted it would say that nothing was selected, even though I did select. I tried several times, then gave up. Also, on dialup, it takes an eternity for all the pics in a category to load. Don't know if anything could be done about it in the future, however. The only problem I had last year was the long loading time...the actual voting worked fine. Congrats to the winners!

Well said SongsofJoy!

I think some people are upset as they wanted to see their favourites on the calendar.

Majority vote rules, and we do all see things differently.

If a calendar is the ultimate goal I can see how some would be upset, but it is really just an offspin of the competition.

It's a pity that some winners will now feel slighted, and so will some voters for their apparent bad choices.

As we are a very mixed bunch of people in tastes, nationalities and ages, it seems reasonable to me that there would be discrepancies in opinions of what should or should not have won.

Entering a competition like this is anyones game, and anyones personal triumph.

A hearty congratulations to all winners, runners up, and entrants, you all just placed your prized personal pictures here for viewing and winning was icing on the cake.

I hope the idea of having a calendar continues for those who want one, it would be a shame to deny that.

Hey!

I feel like I owe you all an apology for posting the above. That was in bad taste. I am sorry!
I also am having problems with my monitor and need to get a new one. Things just do not look right. Especially photos.

Dave--There was no "foul play"--I am sure. No need for me to explain further. it just would not have been my choice--but then that's what the whole voting thing is about.

By the way--I DID NOT submit any pictures this year, so there was nothing "personal" involved.

Hopefully, I am forgiven. I must have had one of those "moments" to complain. Maybe a bad, stressful day---whatever..............

Linda,

Yes! I had problems with voting on my last category--the "Scenic and Sunsets" one. I had done all of them except that one.
When i clicked on it to look at all the photos, something happened. Even the directions part was different. Before I knew it, it was telling me I could now look at my "favorites", but I had not even chosen any. I tried going back to it the next day, but it was the same.

I never got to look at all the pictures in this category, nor vote for any. From what I saw--there were some real beauties!!!!

Gita

Gita - we all have those days......don't stress......be proud that you had the class to say all that you said - just in case someone may have felt bad. We're all big girls and boys and who among us hasn't had one of those "moments"!!! LOL

Gita, I think wading through so many pictures put a lot of us in stress mode, even though it was enjoyable to look at the pics! I found myself looking at some pics after the event with renewed vision, so I did wonder why that was, must have been the 'unforeseen' stress!

The page you went to vote with option links did say that when I viewed it too, but all you needed to do was just 'start' even if you had alread viewed some, it took you to where you left off. The number of favourites shown seemed to be something to do with the way the programme ran. I'll see if I can find what I said about it.

Here it is,

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4150561

Wallaby,

I tried everything! After all--I had successfully gone through all of thee other categories.

Well--it would have been only ONE vote more if I could have voted.

Thank you for making me feel a little better.

Gita

Glad you're feeling better :-))

I wonder if the voting time had ended when you tried, zone differences etc?

NO! It still had days to go!

wallaby, well said in your post # 4220258.

the leaves are mostly on the ground here and not much to take pictures of. I did really enjoy all the beautiful photos in the contest.

Donna

Gita--I don't know why it registered that you had picked favorites when you hadn't, but Dave had posted partway through the contest that in order to re-do votes or change your favorites, you had to go into the contest in thumbnail mode rather than the full size picture mode. Then you could pick new favorites.

I was using the thumbnail mode when clicking to vote. It was within the voting time period. I'm thinking there may have been a period of time when the system just wasn't working.

Yes, ecrane--I was able to see all the pictures in the thumbnail mode after trying all the other ways--BUT------I could not see enough detail in the thumbnails to feel that i could pass "judgment". Someone in another Post suggested that the thumbnails could be made bigger next year. That would be great!!! Along with the "check" boxes next to them. So much less time!

As I mentioned before above, my monitor is old and most pictures look about twice as dark as they should. So, it made it double hard if I looked at the thumbnails. I will definitely be giving myself a X-Mas present----a new, flat-screen monitor.

Besides--I am currently wearing my 10 yr. old glasses as the frame broke on my last ones (5 yrs. old) and the lens fell out. I tried to fix it a couple of times with Superglue, but now all the lenses are "yukked" up with the glue where I touched them and there is no way I can remove it. They are plastic lenses. I have given up on those!

So, I am making do with these god-awful, old, large plastic-framed glasses. I have to tough it out until after Jan. 1st, when my "better coverage" insurance kicks in. I think I will make it--it is just not easy. Besides--I look like "Ugly Betty" (LOVE that show!!!).

As far as the trouble I had with the last category--I could have, accidentally hit some key that was a shortcut for "done" or some such thing. It does not matter. it is over! Gone! Let's forget it, OK?

I did all of the other categories in full-screen. They were just stunning!

Thanks to you all for trying to help me figure out what happened. I guess we will never know.......:o/

To add insult to injury--off the topic--I got up at 4:30AM this morning to be at work at 6AM. (HD) Clocked in, put my apron on--and then found out I do not even work today. I had mis-written my schedule on Friday--when it was for tomorrow-Saturday. Oh well......
I just laughed it off as another "senior moment"......:o(

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I baked all day! Something I make only ONCE a year for Christmas. A true labor of love! EXHAUSTING!!!!!!

I know some of you will be curious what I made. These are my Latvian (that's where I am from) "Pirogies". They are made from fragrant, home-made yeast dough and filled with very finely diced up ham and good, smoked bacon and onions. Every one of them (I made about 300) has to be hand-made with the meat inside and then shaped into a crescent and egged and baked. For one person doing all this, it took ALL day!

Sorry if I got a bit off-topic here.

Gita

Gita - no wonder you had a cranky moment..........get some rest and have a piece of pie!!!! LOL

I love pirogies, but if I was trying to make 300 of them I would probably hate them by the end of the day.

Donna

The only think I hate is all the ongoing clean up. Every pan that comes out of the oven has to be scraped and re-greased.
All the bowls washed. Everything cleaned at the end.....

Hey--Aren't we sort of "hijacking" this Thread a bit???? It WAS about the Photo Contest and the winners.
Don't want people angry with me. I already have ONE strike against me........

Lets stop this cooking/baking discussion before someone gets really angry. OK?

Gita

No strikes.......One of my favorite things about most of the threads is that they can wander for awhile and then come back. Maybe I like it because I tend to think in permanent stream-of -consciousness style!! LOL