Photo contest?

[jbird]

Just kicking around an idea for a photo contest among our readers??? We have so many skilled photographers, along with lots of folks visiting beautiful areas and of coarse, big, lovely fishes :D
I dont know if there should be a prize or not. Maybe the picture could grace the main page of this forum somehow. I dont know how hard/easy it would be to "wallpaper" the main page with a photo? Nobody could submit more than one picture and we can all vote?

Just a thought :idea: :?:

Jay

[Adam Grace]

That sounds like fun! I think that we should have a few different types of photos though, landscape, fish portrait, and some type of artsy abstract picture. What do you think about contestants submitting 3 different types of pictures?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Maybe do one category at a time?

[Jasonh]

I would agree with Bill. Lets do a different category every month? Great idea Jay!

[Adam Grace]

Good idea about the on a month choosing different subjects. What should the subject be this month?

[Jasonh]

How about your favorite fish portrait?

[Adam Grace]

Sounds good to me, but I think we should have two classes of photos;

1) Taken by a point and shoot
2) Taken with an SLR

Because SLR's can do much more than a point and shoot, plus you guys can use professional gear unlike us with p&s cameras. P&S cameras can't fairly compete against SLR's!

Here's my p&s submission :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/Imgp1174.jpg

Here's some other fun portraits:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP0692.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/FallRiverTroutopenwidelightened5x7.jpg

[Jasonh]

My p&s.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/longhorn4life/Fishing/IMGP0070.jpg

One from my Canon 20D
Terry Thomas with a nice American river steelhead
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y213/longhorn4life/IMG_0520.jpg

[jbird]

Cool! This should be fun! Now I have to dig thru all my pics 8)

I am terrible at organizing stuff so I dont know exactly how to make this an organized vote/poll. Maybe we should somehow tag a number to each photo so people can vote on the picture number.?? I have seen some threads that are formated as polls or votes. Maybe that will work?


This pic was taken with a pretty low quality P&S. But its one of my favorites.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/IM_A0003.jpg


Jay

[Jay Murakoshi]

Hey Guys,

This all sounds great BUT if you want it to be a photo contest then I would have to say you do all settings on the camera and NO photoshop involved.
This would have be on a trust system

A good photograph shouldn't have to be touched up if you use the right settings, filters, etc..

Jay

[Jay Murakoshi]

This is my submission. Shot with a Nikon D70S 24-85mm f2.8 on a tripod
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/jaysflies/GablianRedBridgeHouse.jpg

this is original shot. No photo shop involved

Jay

Time for bed

[jbird]

I think there is a lot of creativity in some photoshopping techniques. Like that first picture of adams, when he was working on that photo a couiple years ago, it was really neat and creative. I dont know that photoshopping should be ebtirely frowned on here...Maybe if youve done something to the picture, you could breifly explaine it in your post?...any other thoughts?

Jay

[Jay Murakoshi]

I have one question. I have a photo in iPhoto and want to post it on the board. How do you go about doing that

Thanks

the other J

[Adam Grace]

Jay, that first picture is not photoshopped at all, that's the original picture.

Here's the photoshopped version of that same fish but a different picture, my submission has not been cropped or photoshopped:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/photoshop/colortrout5.jpg

Here's a coupled photoshopped pictures :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/photoshop/greggbassfinalprint.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/photoshop/hogancaddisbigheads-copy.jpg

I think that a little bit of contrast, saturation or color tweaking isn't bad, especially if your using a p&s camera since they lack the control of an SLR.

Bye the way I thought that fish portraits were the subject of this contest, I took that as pictures of just the fish, no fisherman posed with a fish this time, but that would be a great separate subject. To clarify what type of picture do you guys want for this first friendly contest?

We need to choose a cut off date, maybe next Saturday to let everybody get a chance to see this post and join in (the more the merrier) that way it's not just us regulars. After we keep the contest open for a week we could then create a poll and and see what the results are.

What do you guys think about that?

[bolden]

So far things have gotten a little off the contest topic, so how about a seperate post ONLY for the submissions. We could discuss the
pictures and such in this thread, but only post pictures in the other so it is easier to navigate. Eventually, we can close the pictures post and
put up a new post just for voting.

Anyway, it seems as though the first contest is going to be involving fish, and i agree that it would be a good idea to seperate p&s and slr, but as far
as straight out of the camera, that seems unfair. Obviously, there shouldn't be a fish from the internet put into your own arms, but as far as
changing the exposure, saturation, and contrast, i think that should be fine.

So tell me what you think about my idea, also any suggestions on a deadline. Next Saturday was suggested, and that seems fine to me.
We could also consider doing a new topic, related to fishing obviously, every two weeks or a month. If we do it every two weeks, then we
might have to be very specific so that we don't run out of ideas in a couple of months.

We should probobly try and figure out a decent system so we don't have to worry about too much stuff later. So for now i would suggest
no more pictures until we figure out what exactly we are doing.



Ok, now that thats out of the way, here is my suggestion for the contest structure. We do a new topic every two weeks. For example, start this
saturday and end two saturdays from then. The topic should be fairly specific, so instead of just fish in general (portait, hero shot, etc.), we
should pick just portaits (only thing in photo is the fish). We should also have three threads to make it easier, so pictures, discussion, and the
voting thread. The pictures thread should be only submissions for the contest, 1 for p&s and 1 for slr. If you have any other shots that you
want to add, then you can put it in the discussion part. Finally, the voting thread should be simple, so just put the name of who you think should
win for both categories, and whoever gets the most votes win.

I think for this first contest we should stick with what most of the pictures so far in this thread are, fish portaits.

As far as prizes, i think most people here would be fine with knowing that other people thought their photo was the best.

So, hopefully everyone who has participated so far will respond to my thread and mention if you think it is a good idea or not. Also, any
suggestions are welcome, and once there is enough consent maybe we can start a somewhat organized contest.

[jbird]

Bolden

Great suggestions. I was hoping someone was gonna grab the wheel! :D



I agree that we need a fresh thread for photos only, a thread for discussion and then a simple poll/vote. I think if your photo is photoshopped you should add a simple sentence along with the photo to explain...for example "water drop erased from lense on bottom corner of photo" or "saturation and exposure adjusted" I dont think we need any mathematic equations tho. The reason for this is it would be good to know if a picture hasnt been touched up.

As far as the slr>p&s seperation, thats fine, but you should only submit one photo per contest...not one slr and one p-n-s.

I think we should roll with one contest for now and see how it goes and see if theres good participation. 'Fish portrait' is good since thats kinda the theme of our lives. :D .

I'm a little worried about having so many "sticky" threads in the photography section that the contest will monopolize the section.

Maybe if we can keep only the contest photo thread sticky until its time to vote, then we can have the vote sticky until the contest is called. The discussion can float around as a normal thread??

Two weeks sounds about right. I dont think it should drag on too long.

Whatever the case. I think (with Bills O.K) we should start a thread PHOTO CONTEST; POINT and SHOOT and a second thread, PHOTO CONTEST; SLR

I dont think I know how to make a sticky post so if someone does...fire away!

:D I gotta come clean :D when I saw Bolden post here I thought "Well there goes the neighborhood" :lol: Once ole Rob gets wind of this, there'll be little hope for the rest of us :lol: :lol: :D I can picture it now, Bolden at one end of a dusty, ghost town street, Rob at the other, shutter fingers twitching... :D

Jay

[kokaneejr]

Hey guys I second what Bolden and Jbird say. Not to many "stickys" and 2 weeks is a good length of time. Long enough to try and take a photo if you don't have one and not so long you get bored.

Jbird don't worry about coming clean because I feel the same way about Bolden and Rob. Both of them are geat photographers but it will be a challenge to try and test them and see what they come up with. Maybe we can inspire them to more greatness. Or at least learn something from them in the process.

I hope to join in as my computer is going downhill fast and I can't buy a new one until my wife finds a new job. I am trying to let her adjust resumes and apply for jobs before the thing blows so I have been staying away. Just what I need to hear " were you on one of your fishing sites again when the computer went down? :D

By the way Thanks to Rob for bringing to my attention the Fred Miranda site. A great site for photogs. I have been addicted to the macro section for weeks now.

Good Luck to all to enter ....Craig.

[mikenewman]

Jay

Go into I Photo and click & drag the photo onto your desktop (You may have to make your I Photo window a bit smaller by dragging the corner, if you know what I mean) Then you can do the usual photobucket procedure of browse - select desktop and the photo file will be there for selection and upload. (Just got an iMac myself and literally just worked out how to do it with a post to the Warmwater forum :) )
Cheers
Mike

[bolden]

Whatever the case. I think (with Bills O.K) we should start a thread PHOTO CONTEST; POINT and SHOOT and a second thread, PHOTO CONTEST; SLR

If we do seperate the submissions like this, do you think there would still be one discussion thread and one voting thread? I am assuming they will end
at the same time, so the voting should be easy enough in one thread. Just put, slr:"name" and p&s:"name" for who you think should win.

I also just thought that the winner should choose the next contest topic so there is at least some reward for winning.

Maybe tomorrow or sunday we can actually get this thing started, so everyone who reads this please chime in and tell us what you think.

[Jay Murakoshi]

Adam,

I didn't say anything about your photo be photo shop'd. I was making a statement in regards to the photo contest that was proposed.
I believe back (in the dinosaur age) when I attended Brooks photography school, they taught us composition, balance, exposures settings, etc....
That's how the photo's should be submitted.
I'm old school but that's when photography was photograpy. Nowadays, photoshop does wonders :D

Jay

[Jay Murakoshi]

Mike,

Thanks for the info. I'll try that

Jay

[Jay Murakoshi]

OK, let's see if I followed Mike's instructions correctly
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/jaysflies/AussiePhotos013.jpg

It worked.
Mike, thanks alot. Now I know how to do two things on the computer

Jay

[Ed Wahl]

Geez Jay, :shock: :shock: :shock: How about a little warning next time? :) Great pic. Ed

[jbird]

Jay

I think adam was refering to my comment about photoshopping. I remember him doing some cool stuff with that photo a while back. It is an amazing photo in its original form too..

Jbird

PS Sheesh Jay, we may already have a winner!. Is that one of them huichiniaongo thingies?

[Jay Murakoshi]

That's a critter from the Australian waters

Jay (the other J)

[Adam Grace]

Yup, the contest is over....Jay's the winner, great shot and great color!

2 weeks sound like a good amount of time. I like the separate posts for picture, comment and voting. As far as the voting goes I think that we should wait until the contest entry deadline is closed and then make a poll so that keeping track of all the submissions and use the website to keep track of how many votes are cast, we can enter the photographer's names in the poll fields.

I'll post a fake poll to show you guys what it'd look like.

[jbird]

Adam

I like the poll you posted. That will work!

I had a little change of heart on something, tell me what you guys think.
I think a VERY small % of us own a SLR camera. I actualy dont even know what one is :oops: But most of you with a SLR have a P&S----?
Because of the suggested surperior quality of the SLR, perhaps its an unfair advantage??? Maybe for this first contest we should only submit P&S photos.

Or maybe Were just splitting hairs here, another idea would be to just submit your favorite picture, no matter the origin, and see where the chips fall? And when the winner is anounced, he/she can give us some detail about the photograph.

Jay

[bolden]

Well, it seems as though most of the contest format is agreed upon, except for the slr and p&s.

Here is a little list.

- two weeks long
- three seperate threads for pictures, discussion, and voting
- most votes wins (obviously)
- winner chooses next topic (????)

So, please respond to this and just mention if you think my little list is alright. Also, so that we can get the slr and p&s thing solved, put exactly
what you think should happen with them.

For my thoughts on slr and p&s, i think we should have one picture thread and everyone has the option to put up to two photo's, one slr and
one p&s. If you do not have one or the other, then you will only post one picture for the camera type you have.

If everyone agrees that the winner will pick the next topic, then i think i have a solution since there will be two winners (assuming we have both
camera types). When the voting takes place, everyone will vote for one slr and one p&s, so if there are ten people who vote, then there will be
ten votes for both camera types. The person who picks the next picture will be the person with the most votes for their picture that won.

For example, lets assume there are 10 people who vote. The slr winner got 5 votes, with the other 5 going to other slr pictures, and the p&s gets
6 votes, with the other 4 going to other p&s pictures. The result is that the person with 6 votes on the p&s would choose the next topic.

I realize this may be a little confusing, but i think it would work well. if we decide to only have one picture per person, then the one winner
would pick the next topic.

So please respond and tell me what you think so that we can get this thing started.

[sculpin]

I can't remember what it is but it was pretty.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/Sculpin/EastCape029.jpg

[Adam Grace]

Bolden, that sounds just fine to me :thumbsup:

Mark, that looks like a cool fish, great coloration.

[jbird]

I think we've got a decent format to launch this thing...lets do it before it really gets confusing :lol:

Adam, would you mind doing the honors of creating the photo posting thread that sticks to the top of the forum?

Jay

[Jay Murakoshi]

Sculpin,

That fish is found off the beaches in Baja. It's called a blue razor. I've caught alot of the off the beaches in the Las Arenas area.

Jay

[bolden]

Trying to get an agreement on the slr and p&s deal is not working, so i will decide. We will follow my earlier suggestion for one picture thread
with the possibility to add up to two photos, one from each camera type. If for some reason this format does not work, or no one likes it, then we
can change it later.

I do not know how to make a sticky thread, i think the admin has to do it, so maybe one of the admins can make this thread for us. This current
thread can remain the discussion thread.


Subject: Photo Contest #1 - Pictures

Message Body:

Photo Contest #1 - Fish Portaits

Each participant may enter up to two photos, one photo from an SLR camera, and one photo from a P&S camera.

The topic for this contest is fish portaits and will be limited to pictures of fish, which means that the main subject in the photo will be a fish. Hands
and arms in the picture are alright, but no photos including an entire person (aka hero shot).

The contest will last through Sunday, September 23, when a voting thread will be opened to tally the results.

There will be two winners, one for a photo from an SLR camera and one photo from a P&S camera. From the two winners, the one with the most
votes for their winning picture will choose the next photo contest topic.

This thread is for pictures only, NO discussion in this thread please. If you wish, you can give specifics about your own photos. For example,
what camera, what lens, where it was taken, any photoshop changes, etc.

Good luck to all.

[Adam Grace]

Ben, now I know your first name, cool. Great post, hopefully one of the administrators will copy your instructions and rules and we'll get this thing going.

[sculpin]

Sculpin,

That fish is found off the beaches in Baja. It's called a blue razor. I've caught alot of the off the beaches in the Las Arenas area.

Jay

Thanks Jay. I knew it was a Blue something but I couldn't remember the rest.

Mark

[jbird]

Sounds good Bolden. My only suggestion would be, the same person shouldnt be able to win both catagories (SLR and P&S). Since folks with only P&S cameras are only submitting one picture.

Jay

[Adam Grace]

I agree with you too Jay.

[bolden]

Sounds good Bolden. My only suggestion would be, the same person shouldnt be able to win both catagories (SLR and P&S). Since folks with only P&S cameras are only submitting one picture.


That is actually the first good reason i have heard for only submitting one picture. Now that you mention this, i can't think of any good way to
have both camera types if you can only win one. The only thing i can think of is each person submit one picture, either slr or p&s, but keep
both camera types in the poll. Since each person only submits a photo for one camera tye, there is no way you could win both categories. The
one big problem with this however is that there will be much more competition in the p&s category, because that is what most people have.
If i post something from my slr and nobody else posts for an slr, then i win by default. That does not seem to be a great idea.

I think we have two options then.

1. My original thoughts, two photos per person, one for each camera type. The problem with this is one person could win both categories.

2. Only one photo per person, and the winner is the one with the best photo, regardless of the equipment. The problem with this is that slr
have certain advantages.


Adam and Jay, since you two seem to be participating more than anyone else here, tell me which option you think is better so we can finally get
this thing going.

[jbird]

Lets just all post one picture, regardless of camera type. Obviously the quality of the SLRs may be better, but the subject in the photo will have a lot to do with the victor.

In the name of getting this started, lets just do it like that. We can fine tune any details on the next contest. Sometimes a crash test is necessary for success :D

I think a lot of guys are ready to post photos and will participate once we get the ball rolling.

Also, a link to the thread on "how to post a photo" might be helpfull at the beginning of THE photo thread.

Jay

[Adam Grace]

Well, I think that there are enough SLR owners here to make a SLR section of the contest. There's at least Bolden, Rob, Jay, and Jason who all post pictures fairly regularly.

I think that the winner of the SLR section cannot win the p&s section. If a person wins both sections then they should be claimed the SLR contest winner and the 2nd place winner in the p&s should be declared the winner of the p&s contest.

If there is only one submission in the SLR contest the the are still available to win the p&s contest.

What do you think ?

[jbird]

oops! Sorry adam, we were typing at the same time...CRUD! wouldnt you know it, we have a split desision :lol: :lol: .

I'm easy Adam, your way sounds fine, As I said, lets roll and see how it works.

If you or Bolden can visualize a format for starting it, please do :)

I think a site administrater can make a post sticky after its conception?

Lights, camera, action!

Jay

[Adam Grace]

:lol: Yeah lets give it a try with two contest.

I'll send Bill a PM to get this started.

The message asked Bill to make a sticky thread to post this as the main body:


Photo Contest #1 - Fish Portraits

Each participant may enter up to two photos, one photo from an SLR camera, and one photo from a P&S camera.

The topic for this contest is fish portraits and will be limited to pictures of fish, which means that the main subject in the photo will be a fish. Hands
and arms in the picture are alright, but no photos including an entire person (aka hero shot).

The contest will last through Sunday, September 23, when a voting thread will be opened to tally the results. The voting poll will be open for 7 days.

There will be two winners, one for a photo from an SLR camera and one photo from a P&S camera. From the two winners, the one with the most
votes for their winning picture will choose the next photo contest topic. In the case of the same person winning both contests, that person would be declared the winner of the SLR contest and the runner up in the P&S section is to declared the winner of that section.

This thread is for pictures only, NO discussion in this thread please. If you wish, you can give specifics about your own photos. For example,
what camera, what lens, where it was taken, any photoshop changes, etc.

Good luck to all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the deadline for submissions I will create a poll. We can just start a discussion without the need for a sticky discussion thread.

I hope that there will be a great turn out for this contest!

[jbird]

Adam

Lets get some more entries and make this contest more about viewing cool pictures without worrying about winning

Thats what really motivated me to bring up the idea. I love to look at pictures! I hope no one is detered by the competition.

For everyone thinking about posting a photo in the contest, just do it! we all want to see your favorite picture...whether it wins or not, it'll be fun!

Jay

[Adam Grace]

Jay, lets hope that many people contribute their fishing photos for us all to enjoy! :)

[bolden]

Jay, lets hope that many people contribute their fishing photos for us all to enjoy!

Thats one of the best parts.

I was just thinking too, is there any easy way to make sure when we vote we can't vote for ourselves? If not we can go by the honor system and i
don't think that would be bad at all.

Nice pictures by the way.

[Adam Grace]

I think that the honor system will work well here, everyone seems to be honest and genuine.

I hope that this contest will also inspire board members to take more photos. I would love to see the new amount of photo essays/posts to increase!

I recently ran across a nice picture that I wanted to submit but I didn't take this picture. I was holding this Feather River steelie that I caught, my buddy and local guide Ryan Miller took this nice picture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/flyguyag/fishing/IMGP4423.jpg