G-Series Forum Photo Challenges

I like this B&W shot very much.Tealblue

I would be interested. I bought this camera 1 year ago and would like to get those great shots. I am a newbie at this so please forgive me for some really (Don't Know) questions .

Donn Ellis - no problem all threads have a "few directions" in them from what I have seen since joining this fourm....

Keeping to pictures in the forum may be the best idea - We will just have to set some guidelines for file size and dimension so that we are not scrolling to see shots.

Solo175 - I think that these mini-challenges could really help you - get you some great critiques on your work and make it even better. You have a great camera and learning how to use it better is time well spent to me.

I look forward to starting these - I was going to run it by the moderators first and then I will let everyone know......

Thankyou tealblue.....I havent seen any other photos yet....I dont know how to delete my bad posts. I must look that up and do so, ie the too big versions.

Ray

Yes, I am in! Are we going to do something like the "Photograph of the Year" contest that timmyquest did on the EOS forum, or something simpler?

pradeep1,

Probably something more simple - but I would like to have them on a regular basis - run each "mini-challenge" for 7-10 days and then the winner would get to choose the next topic and we would be off again. Other forums run these quite consistently and effectively from my experience. Each person would post their "entry" in the official thread and the winner from the previous week would choose the current winner. So there would not be a "voting system" from all participants - more of a single judge system. What do we all think of that?

A few scribbled thoughts...

File Size: 640 pixels exactly on the longest side (no more, no less), no borders, less than 150KB. That is what is used on Fred Miranda's challenges and I have come to like it (even though I don't participate over there because it's for new photos). I think it levels the playing view for judging.

Eligibility: Photo taken anytime as long as it's with a G camera. While it would be nice to take all new photos, if the mini-challenge is only 7-10 days, that's just not going to happen and we'll get too few entries. Another thought -- it would be nice if images that have won other challenges are not entered.

Time Frame: 7-10 days sounds good. Seven days has the advantage of being a calendar week, so people would always know that it starts and ends on certain days. The problem is that the moderator needs time to judge, and then the winner is taken completely by surprise, while all the los... other people want to know what the next topic is. So... an alternative is to have a 14-day challenge, where shooting/posting goes on for 12 days and voting and new topic take 2 days. That puts you back on the calendar, but it's probably too long for people's attention spans. Hmm... What about this idea -- 8 days to shoot and post. One day to judge and comment. One day for the winner to announce another topic. That's 10 days total and we could create a calendar that people could download so they know what the dates are in advance. (I've since posted a more coherent idea a little farther down in this thread.)

Number of Images: 1, 2 or 3? While the CTF Mini-Challenge allows three, I see a lot of people submitting three when they should only be submitting one. Choosing your best ONE has the advantage of sharpening one's mind, so I would probably say one submission -- but I'm happy to hear dissenting viewpoints. If the aim is to see good work, perhaps 2 or 3 is better. But ONE has a lot of appeal to me.

Voting: In the CTF Mini-Challenge, I've seen some good photographers make bad choices for the winner BUT, since there are no "valuable cash prizes" for winning, even a bad choice is no big deal. I think that having everyone vote for the winner -- while fairer -- is a big nuisance, especially in a threaded challenge. So, I favor the moderator picking the winner.

Moderator: By definition, the winner of the last challenge (for the first one, I suggest bauerman). The moderator picks the challenge and the winner when all the entries are in. I also think it would be nice for the moderator to choose the top three (or top five if there are many entries) and offer a few comments on what made them stand out.

Commenting: I'm not wild about everyone commenting on photos as they are posted -- especially the moderator who should be disinterested until the end. Commenting on every photo just creates a longer thread that you have to scroll through to get to the photos. However, I can see that some people might want the feedback, so this is probably up for discussion. It would still be possible to comment after the voting.

See, I can post an on-topic message.

Cheers,

Don

Extremely helpful post Don - you almost put together the entire rule set for our challenges! I think that you have some great suggestions there. I think that we are pretty close to getting these moving and I think that they WILL be helpful for all of us............more info to follow.....

Now that I've had a cup of tea, I can offer another thought on timing... since the average month is 30 days, we can do three 10-day challenges per month, with the last challenge adjusted for 28, 29 or 31 days.

So you'd have...

First Challenge
Posting... Day 1-8
Winner Announcement... Day 9
New Topic... Day 10

Second Challenge
Posting... Day 11-18
Winner Announcement... Day 19
New Topic... Day 20

Third Challenge
Posting... Whatever days it turns out to be based on the next two, as few as 6 (February) or as many as 9 (any month with 31 days).
Winner Announcement... Next to the last day of the month
New Topic... Last day of the month

Cheers,

Don

Great suggestion, Bauerman--I'm excited to see this get rolling!
One agreement/elaboration on Don's suggestions: viewer feedback on submissions could be directed through private messages (this board supports those, right?) directly to the photographer. I don't see a huge benefit to those comments being threaded for everyone to see, and the drawback of clutter is obvious. Possibly we could adopt an informal notation for folks who specifically want feedback, as has been implemented on other challenge sites?

To elaborate on this, you're right about private-message feedback, although some people might prefer not to be contacted personally, so a star system (*) is a good idea. Having said that, there is always the Critique Forum for people who are really looking for feedback... or comments could be made at the end of the same thread after the winner is announced.

One thing that is helpful for photographers (and to keep the questions down) is to include...
Camera Model (good anytime)
Settings (if desired)
Location (good)
Time of Day/Year (if it's meaningful)
Hints and Tips on how the photograph was taken.

Cheers,

Don

All,

I asked belmondo - one of the moderators of the forums, about our challenge idea and he thought that it was a fine idea and that it would be nice. So barring any other issues or problems - we could start our first G-Series Mini Challenge this week! I will try to get my ideas along with all other suggestions posted in this thread into an 'official" guidelines post and then we can choose our first topic and be off an running. I hope that people find these fun and helpful........ be sure to post any other comments or sugestions in this thread - and thanks!

I support the idea...

As far as the voting is concerned ... if you limit yourself to one vote (for the best photo) and make it open to all forum participants, the POLL function would really take a lot of work out of it.

Best regards,
Andy

At first glance, this sounds like an excellent idea. I had to host one of the CTF Mini-Challenges and the worst part of it was choosing the winner. I do like the idea of greater participation and if the poll function can handle it, fine.

I do wonder about every boy and his dog and his best friends and their mates jumping in -- or even multiple votes from individuals -- but I'm sure that's a reflection of my usual cynicism and my ignorance of the poll function.

Cheers,

Don