Fun themed photography competition?

[lolage]

I know something similar was done a few years back but it seems to have died..!? There wouldn't really be any prizes as such, just a bit of fun - giving people a reason to get out there and shoot!

I don't mind organising it all, my general idea was to have a different theme for each competition - and then I'll open a voting thread and everyone can get involved and pick their top 3. (1st gets 3 points, 2nd gets 2 points and 3rd gets 1 point).

Any interest? If so would you prefer it weekly/monthly?

 

[D.P.]

You've opened a big can of worms there.

There have been loads of discussions about competitions, but those who were most vocal in support really didn't do anything to start the competitions, let alone organize, score entries, post feed back etc.

Last year is started the competitions up again after seeing no one else lift a finger, despite the fact that I really am not interested in them. After that 1 competition no one else bothered to carry things on.


The other big issue is no one can agree on the structure of the competitions. Weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual, themes, open, categories, ma community voted, official judges, how the scoring should actually work, when the photo must be taken, etc. If there is a preference then it tends to be towards a structure that takes both more work to mange and excludes more people, e.g. too frequent with restrictive themes marked by select judges.


The only way I see the competitions working is something much more open and easy to both partake in and organize. Quarterly competitions, photos form the prior 12 months acceptable, no themes, just broad categories (people, wildlife, landscape) and community voted - each person gives a score out of 10 for any photos they want using any criteria they want. Highest average score wins. this way it is easy for people to submit photos, the quality is higher, everyone has plenty of photographs to get n entry, can photograph subjects they are interested in, etc.

Now I have posted that I am sure someone is going to come along and demand weekly competitions with an intricately complex theme and come complex anonymous voting by selected judges. Yet that person will never start the compensation or put any help into organizing it. We've been here so may times.

 

[deuse]

I know something similar was done a few years back but it seems to have died..!? There wouldn't really be any prizes as such, just a bit of fun - giving people a reason to get out there and shoot!

I don't mind organising it all, my general idea was to have a different theme for each competition - and then I'll open a voting thread and everyone can get involved and pick their top 3. (1st gets 3 points, 2nd gets 2 points and 3rd gets 1 point).

Any interest? If so would you prefer it weekly/monthly?

Why not just have "Post your funny picture" that's all you need in my opinion.

 

[lolage]

You've opened a big can of worms there.

There have been loads of discussions about competitions, but those who were most vocal in support really didn't do anything to start the competitions, let alone organize, score entries, post feed back etc.

Last year is started the competitions up again after seeing no one else lift a finger, despite the fact that I really am not interested in them. After that 1 competition no one else bothered to carry things on.


The other big issue is no one can agree on the structure of the competitions. Weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual, themes, open, categories, ma community voted, official judges, how the scoring should actually work, when the photo must be taken, etc. If there is a preference then it tends to be towards a structure that takes both more work to mange and excludes more people, e.g. too frequent with restrictive themes marked by select judges.


The only way I see the competitions working is something much more open and easy to both partake in and organize. Quarterly competitions, photos form the prior 12 months acceptable, no themes, just broad categories (people, wildlife, landscape) and community voted - each person gives a score out of 10 for any photos they want using any criteria they want. Highest average score wins. this way it is easy for people to submit photos, the quality is higher, everyone has plenty of photographs to get n entry, can photograph subjects they are interested in, etc.

Now I have posted that I am sure someone is going to come along and demand weekly competitions with an intricately complex theme and come complex anonymous voting by selected judges. Yet that person will never start the compensation or put any help into organizing it. We've been here so may times.

I see. I don't mind keeping on top of the threads every month... I think format wise, a monthly competition with fairly broad categories would work well. Roughly the first 3 weeks for photos, then the last week for voting from the community. I don't like the idea of specific judges tbh and I see no need to over complicate it with other websites etc, it can all be done within a few threads I think.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I don't think you have been here long enough to remember when the competition was really good (2001-2006 thereabouts). That was when it worked, people looked forward to the next one and each one started up again on time every time.

The way it worked was that the community voted 3 judges, and a theme was picked. Each photo is judged on 3 basic and broad areas (Technical/Artistic/Overall). And then one of the judges will tally them up and post the result.

There was no fixed deadline, there is just a deadline between the competition starts and ends. People are free to comment on each other's entries, only the judges are forbidden to make any comments or enter. There were 2 co-current threads, one was for entries and one for discussions.

The winner picks next round's theme, that was the prize so to speak.

Judges would do their "duties" and after so long, whether they want to enter the competition themselves or real life takes over, he will step down and someone else will step in. It was very organic and natural. I don't recall there was anyone who "overstay their welcome".

I think the above format worked because we trusted the opinion of the judges (albeit it is all personal opinion) as opposed to an open poll, or wait for all people who had entered cast their votes. It is much quicker and streamline to wait for 3 people's votes than 50 people to vote via email and to put them into a spreadsheet. Besides, it was all in the name of fun so even if what you think your favourite photo didn't win, it doesn't really matter. I found the discussion thread far more interesting for it.

It was a format that worked great for years…then we all know what happened.

Not sure about anyone else. That left a bad taste in my mouth, to me, how the competition was suddenly got taken out the community's hands was the beginning of the end of what was once a thriving sub-forum on this board.

 

[lolage]

I don't think you have been here long enough to remember when the competition was really good (2001-2006 thereabouts). That was when it worked, people looked forward to the next one and each one started up again on time every time.

The way it worked was that the community voted 3 judges, and a theme was picked. Each photo is judged on 3 basic and broad areas (Technical/Artistic/Overall). And then one of the judges will tally them up and post the result.

There was no fixed deadline, there is just a deadline between the competition starts and ends. People are free to comment on each other's entries, only the judges are forbidden to make any comments or enter. There were 2 co-current threads, one was for entries and one for discussions.

The winner picks next round's theme, that was the prize so to speak.

Judges would do their "duties" and after so long, whether they want to enter the competition themselves or real life takes over, he will step down and someone else will step in. It was very organic and natural. I don't recall there was anyone who "overstay their welcome".

I think the above format worked because we trusted the opinion of the judges (albeit it is all personal opinion) as opposed to an open poll, or wait for all people who had entered cast their votes. It is much quicker and streamline to wait for 3 people's votes than 50 people to vote via email and to put them into a spreadsheet. Besides, it was all in the name of fun so even if what you think your favourite photo didn't win, it doesn't really matter. I found the discussion thread far more interesting for it.

It was a format that worked great for years…then we all know what happened.

Not sure about anyone else. That left a bad taste in my mouth, to me, how the competition was suddenly got taken out the community's hands was the beginning of the end of what was once a thriving sub-forum on this board.

It does sound a shame for it to have just gone...

The feeling I get regarding judges is that they obviously don't get to enter so it'll be easy for them to lose interest if they don't feel as if they're getting much from it. I used to be a member on a different forum a few years back and they did a system where anyone can vote and it worked well. As you say, it is all just for fun so the need for proper judges seems a bit overkill to me.

Is anyone actually up for giving it another go? I'm more than happy to come up with a more defined structure and to just run with it.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I don't recall losing interest by not being allowed to enter. I found the judging part has its own merit and fun. It felt like I was contributing to was the forum. Most people who pass on the role mainly due to real life responsibility as it does take a couple of hours to score, input spreadsheet, then write up a new thread with all the data.

Not being able to enter is not a negative, at least I didn't think so.

 

[D.P.]

It does sound a shame for it to have just gone...

The feeling I get regarding judges is that they obviously don't get to enter so it'll be easy for them to lose interest if they don't feel as if they're getting much from it. I used to be a member on a different forum a few years back and they did a system where anyone can vote and it worked well. As you say, it is all just for fun so the need for proper judges seems a bit overkill to me.

Is anyone actually up for giving it another go? I'm more than happy to come up with a more defined structure and to just run with it.

I think everyone getting to vote works very well:

1. It is much fairer having a broader input of many peoples votes than the subjective nature of 2 or 3 judges
2. You don't have to wait for those judges to be done, there is no pressure on those 3 people. If a judge gets sick/goes on holiday/busy at work/home then the competition gets screwed.
3. Everybody gets to be a part of the competition and forma community out of it.
4. It is much quicker for dozens of different people to provide scoring on subsets of photos that they find interesting that a few select people having to go over every single entry. Work load is split up nicely.
5. The voting can easily then have a fixed deadline since you aren't waiting for judges. E.g., there is a 1 week window when people get to vote. quickly tally the scores and jobs done.
6. Much less formal and more friendly.

 

[D.P.]

I don't recall losing interest by not being allowed to enter. I found the judging part has its own merit and fun. It felt like I was contributing to was the forum. Most people who pass on the role mainly due to real life responsibility as it does take a couple of hours to score, input spreadsheet, then write up a new thread with all the data.

Not being able to enter is not a negative, at least I didn't think so.

That is why a community voted approach will just work better because it doesn't matter if real life gets int he way, you just don't vote if you are busy, or you just vote for a few photos you like. Remove responsibility form a few elite and lets everyone get a go at viewing photos critically.

 

[lolage]

I agree ^ community vote will give it more of a fun vibe, and it won't be a chore for anyone. If you have 2 mins to vote, vote - if not don't worry. Having judges in my eyes gives the perception that the competition is quite serious.

It will take all of 10 minutes or so for me to tally up votes from people who decide to vote.

 

[D.P.]

I agree ^ community vote will give it more of a fun vibe, and it won't be a chore for anyone. If you have 2 mins to vote, vote - if not don't worry. Having judges in my eyes gives the perception that the competition is quite serious.

It will take all of 10 minutes or so for me to tally up votes from people who decide to vote.

That is my thinking.



I also think it is very important even for beginners to look at photos critically and see what they like or don't like about a photo rather than simply having a couple of judges dictate their subjective opinions. by examinging other peoples photos and thinking about what works and what doesn't they hopefully start looking at their own work under such a critical eye and can apply self-critique to their workflow.

 

[Akagi]

Do all slightly off topic posts get deleted? It would be appreciated if you stop targeting me DJ...

** Try completely off topic, as for rest take any concerns you might have to the Admin team ** - DJ

Anyway, on topic, we do need these to come back. If nothing else it will give me an excuse to go out with my camera!

I think weekly might be too often for some of us, but it would encourage more/different people to participate, so might not be a bad idea.

 

[planty]

We could do it as an OCUK community calendar? A different theme every month (maybe relating to the month?) with a single thread for each month. Entries can be critiqued in the thread during the month, and can be voted on in the following month in a separate thread? At the end of a year you'd have 12 awesome pictures to make into a calendar? Could even open the voting out to GD as well, and sell the resulting calendar on OCUK for charity?

Pie in the sky

 

[lolage]

That is my thinking.



I also think it is very important even for beginners to look at photos critically and see what they like or don't like about a photo rather than simply having a couple of judges dictate their subjective opinions. by examinging other peoples photos and thinking about what works and what doesn't they hopefully start looking at their own work under such a critical eye and can apply self-critique to their workflow.

If nothing else it will give me an excuse to go out with my camera!

I think weekly might be too often for some of us, but it would encourage more/different people to participate, so might not be a bad idea.

Yeah for sure, it's great for newbies to get involved and learn about composition etc. I'm sure people will be happy to help. I think I'll start writing up the format and start off the competition for next month! Will be monthly, fairly relaxed with no judges - just fun.

We could do it as an OCUK community calendar? A different theme every month (maybe relating to the month?) with a single thread for each month. Entries can be critiqued in the thread during the month, and can be voted on in the following month in a separate thread? At the end of a year you'd have 12 awesome pictures to make into a calendar? Could even open the voting out to GD as well, and sell the resulting calendar on OCUK for charity?

Pie in the sky

haha, maybe we can arrange this closer to the end of the year for next year. Let's see how it goes to start with...