Some thoughts about photo contests

Oh, I really started to enjoy reading these comments. This time I will add just another (of many of my wishes and thoughts) thought.
DPC was / is "just another" place and opportunity to share our images. IMHO, some users needs places to share and other aren't that excited about it (I'm one of them, but I will write my arguments some other time).
And I really hope that this " just another" may change in the future. I'm counting a lot on future photo gallery section. And part of this (very demanding task for me) will be a new DPC application (not anymore in the form of forum). Our admin will have some tools / options to "moderate" submissions, and one of the field that we may require is "the story behind the image". And somehow, I feel this may be one thing that you may like a lot Cleaner.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

Words put down in writing in general influence us.

If you mean should we keep voting apart from giving comments thats something to think about.

If you mean the future application Mladen (Kiklop) was talking about (i.e. the submitter of the photo can add his comments). I doubt that would have any noticeable influence on the outcome of a picture in the contest. It might show why the submitter think this effort was the best he could do under the circumstance or it might show how "easy" it is to achieve a certain effect if you know the right tricks. But in the end the picture will be taken apart and voted upon separately from the "story" (I would think).

Thank you for responding on the questions I raised.
It is just my own way of understanding photography and also the matters
I've been wondering about for long time.
I think one of the facts effected the way I understand photography is that
in Japanese language, two Chinese characters are used for composing the
word "photograph".
The first character means something like "reflection" or "capturing" and
the second one means something like "truth" or "reality".
I guess Japanese people in that period of time freaked out big time when
they saw photographs for the first time...
This also tells me that when photography was first introduced in Japan
long ago, it was nothing but to keep the record of visual image as close
as what people see with their eyes.
In that respect, photograph must have been taken with adequate settings
(exposure time, aperture size, angle of lighting, composition and etc.).
After that, some people started to feel some "artistic beauty" in
photography and started to express something other than "realism" in
photograph.
At the same time, some people found the way to express more "realism"
by applying extra effects and/or special techniques.
I think, in modern photography, both of the above are often combined
together and we have got more freedom on the way how we express what
we want, specially with advanced technologies.
I'm not totally against contest but I'm little worried about if the the points
and/or comments given to the photographs make some people loose
some part of freedom of photography and/or imaginations.
There will never be a perfect photograph for everyone but there may be
some perfect one only for you (or at least something special for you).
Of course, in the contest, people submit their photographs with
understanding that the photographs are going to be judged by someone.
In here at DPC, I would like to submit the photos taken by the way I like,
the way I like my 7D, the way I like my Minolta (and some other) lens just
in order to share something with people here and I hope that DPC to be
different from the other contests out there (DPC with Minolta Sprit would
be nice, I guess?).
I really don't know the best way to hold DPC because there are no such
absolute rules in photography, I believe.
No matter what, I enjoy being in here and I actually enjoy reading the
comments because every comments tell me that everyone have different
way of understanding photography and opinions, it actually means to me,
that I should be myself.

Hi gian,

I agree with your opinion.
No picture/paintings make me feel like the same as the photographer/
painter, simply it is impossible I guess.
I enjoy looking at pictures/paintings because some of them give me
inspirations almost like new discoveries, some of them make me wonder
about the story behind them, some of them make me wonder about the
rest of the image outside the frame.

If you can get hold of a current issue (Hong Kong Special) of Japanese
magazine called "+81", you will see a photo I didn't really liked, I posted
somewhere in this forum and told that it has too much empty space, is
used as 2 pages open photo.
The magazine is also sold in Europe and US, written in both Japanese and
English (a lot of photos in this issue are taken with 7D).

As my conclusion, there is no perfect way to judge photographs.
Keep exchanging opinions like this indeed open up our eyes/mind and
brings in more knowledge for everyone.

I would like to introduce a poem my friend, Kien Liew from San Diego
gave me (he is a old time pro-skateboarder).

LEAN HOW TO UNDERSTAND
THEN THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO KNOW

I'm sorry for the long text with bad English.

Glad to be here.

Edited by Cleaner - 17 November 2005 at 08:21

Interesting thread this one.

We are all comming from different backgrounds, we will interpretate a photo in a million different ways.
I would be glad if I get a comment in every photo, but it is just me. I think we know what we like and I do not think the comments that we made in DPC can influence in the taste of others.

But I know some people do not like to get comments, and it is fine too, but I think we should have a kind of statement here so we know what photo we should comment.

In some site I read "Ratings are for the site, comment for the photographers", I think to comment and get comment is a very good way of learning.

But I think if somenbody put a photo in a contest this will be commented, we should state this clear maybe, that putting a photo in DPC the photo will be commented or?

Interesting thread as I said before, and please if I offended somenbody for my comments it was not my intention at all.

Yes, really interesting, indeed! :)

I would like to add 2 (or more :) lines about the meaning of the "contest".

It is just my own way to interpret it, but I would like to share it anyway,
because I think that you (cleaner) live it in a wrong way...

What I like about the "contest" is not the voting, and the podium.
Yes, I'm really happy when I see that a picture of mine is a finalist, and
everitime it is getting a single vote.
But I like more taking pictures and I find that taking pictures with an
objective, a subject, a theme is very "challenging".

I think the real meaning of contest isn't "me vs you" but "me vs myself"!
:D

It's something hard to explain, but I'm sure you will understand ^_^


Ooops: We are flooding the voting poll with our bla bla bla... I hope that
moderators won't kill us... :)

I tought that you was giving too much importance to the voting period of
the contest.

I was thinking at your previous post:

Cleaner wrote: I think that contests could be good for people in need of some credits in their profile for becoming pro or famous (this can't be applied to all but anyway...).

Then you added two important things:
1) Comments/votes can be a powerful learning tool.
2) Everybody feels pictures in a different way.

I was wondering if you missed another important (for me) point:

Contests are challenging, inspiring, exciting and push you to do your
best.
It's like to be a pro, but in a game.

Votes are necessary, to have a conlusion, to know if I did my work well, if
I win the game or not.

Comments are necessary to learn why a picture is good or bad, to
understand mistakes and how to avoid them. Somehow, to learn or
improve photography.


Now there is another thought in my mind:
It might be that the difference is in why an individual takes pictures: just
for his own pleasure/memories, or to share emotions with others?

I've started taking pictures just to have something that could help me
remembering some events in future.
Then I discovered that my friends were feeling something seeing my
pictures, and it was a gratification.
Now I NEED to know what other people think about my picture, because
the meaning of "pictures" has changed in my mind.

I think that the ability to create a picture with feelings inside, is a terrific
power!

I'm really addicted to photography.


[ooops, I didn't noticed the stop signal, because I was writing this post...]

Edited by gian - 17 November 2005 at 11:02

Since Cleaner kind of started this whole discussion I was very tempted to let him have the last word :) But it is such an interesting discussion that I felt I should add my 2 cents to it.

First, I'm a relative newbie when it comes to photography. I've had the Dynax 5 for close to 2 years but it was only after I bought the 5D that I became more serious about photography to the extent that I even invested quite a bit in lenses. You might be wondering why I'm boring you with these details...actually it is to show that you should not take my words too seriously and I don't want to come off as some photography guru! And please excuse if I come across as high-brow or too serious...that is the last thing I want to do!

We all have our individual reasons for taking photographs and for treating it a bit more seriously than the average person. It might be because one wants to become the next Ansel Adams or it might be because one gets a great kick out of recording a personal moment and reliving it at a later point of time with family and friends or it might just be the simple pleasure of capturing something beautiful you saw for posterity. Whatever the reasons, I think you will agree with me when I say deep within we want to get noticed and stand out from the rest. We want to show our work to others (be it fellow photographers or the general public) and hear their reaction. I know this is not the case with everyone and there will always be some people who will be perfectly happy with not showing their photos ever to a third person. But I think even that person would feel happy if someone noticed something about his photos and appreciated that.

So in the end a contest is one means to that end. It is not about winning prizes or, as someone put it rightly, standing on a podium. Yes, that gives a certain pleasure too but thats not the point. The point is that we are out there sharing our work with others. The point is that we can learn to be comfortable with complete strangers looking at (what might be) personal moments. I think the latter is the most important point, being comfortable with others dissecting our 'work'. Personally, I think this will help me a lot in the long run. Books are useful too but I think I'd learn more from the real-time advice I might get here than the somewhat static pointers from a book.

So there you go. I've rambled on enough. More (if there is a need) later.

-Anil

Edited by arthedains - 17 November 2005 at 14:19