SMWYG Year 4: Return of the Photographer ADMIN THREAD

Well, it's time for the 2011 SMWYG Photographer of the Year competition.

This competition is designed to encourage people to focus on their shooting skills (instead of gear fetishes ). The basic premise is to get out and shoot during the week and post your best photo here. We will however allow any photo taken from April 1, 2010 to now as a valid entry.

Each week's photo submissions will end every Friday night 9pm pst. The weeks winners will be posted here every Sunday night by 6pm pst. The month's winners will also be posted here, as soon as the judges have finished voting.

There are some rules though, so be sure you read through them before you enter your photos. If the rules are broken, your photos will be disqualified and you won't be eligible for the prize. (Rules are the same as last year.)

This is the admin thread. I will link the first photo thread & the chat thread in the 2nd post. PLEASE KEEP THE PHOTO THREADS for PHOTOS ONLY. Any comments relevant to photos should be posted AFTER the photos are judged.

RULES:
1. You must be a member of POTN prior to October 1, 2010 in order to participate in this contest.

2. You may enter only one photo a week.

3. All cameras are allowed AS LONG as you are an active member of POTN, and not just here for the contest. Scanned film shots are also allowed as long as they were taken within the required dates. And just a reminder: banning disqualifies you from the contest.

4. The photo must be your own, original work.

5. If you are "banned from the forums" during the competition, your photos will be disqualified.

6. You may enter any photo you like (landscape, macro, sports etc) EXCEPT nude (since this is not the G&N section).

7. You do not have to enter every week, but obviously if you do, you'll have a better chance of being one of the top 3 for the month.

8. The monthly winning photos will be hosted in a special gallery on my zenfolio site (just like last year) so if you enter the contest, you are agreeing to allow them to be hosted if you win the month.

9. Please remember to include the EXIF for your photo. This contest is also to help others to learn and grow from what they see.

10. click for PROCESSING GUIDELINES

NOTE: PLEASE REMOVE ALL WATERMARKS FROM YOUR PHOTOS TO ALLOW THE JUDGES AN UNBIASED OPPORTUNITY TO SCORE YOUR PHOTOS. Thanks!

Contest ends April 30th, 2011, the top photos (3 from each month) will be posted for everyone to see and on June 1, 2011 the winning photo will be announced and the 2011 SMWYG Photographer of the Year awarded.

Good luck and have fun.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask here.

THINGS TO NOTE:

1. The winning photos will be made into a calendar for 2012. The Grand Prize winner will receive a free calendar & the title "2011 SMWYG Photographer of the Year". By entering this contest, you are granting permission for your photos (should they win the month) to be published in the calendar. If your photo wins the month, SMWYG judges will be contacting you for a high res. photo for the calendar. If you don't wish for your photos to be in the calendar, please do not enter the contest.

2. Grand prize winner from previous year may enter the contest but is not eligible for the grand prize.


What I look for in a photo.


NEW: I would suggest reading this link, is a short list of things recommended not to do.
Photographers, Take the time to be objective with our own shots

PHOTOS ONLY beginning thread


Chat thread link


The photo's only thread will be linked in this post STARTING MONDAY, NOV 1st, 2010

I've already had a couple of people say "I'm not sure I can compete with the talent...it might be discouraging to lose all the time." I can only say that I've seen people who were very much snapshot photographers when they started SMWYG 3 years ago who stuck with it, week after week, and they learned SO much that if you look at their photos now you wouldn't believe how far they've come. And the important thing is, that at the end of each season, you could see such dramatic improvements in everyone's work. People started looking for the ugly. Noticing if something was over sharpened or the lights/darks blown.

While I know people enter to win, IMO it is as much about the process & improving your skills as well as learning how to stand out in a very crowded field, that is the point of this contest.

Sounds great, I finally finished cleaning out ALL of my Smugmug photos.( that took all week:o) and replacing them with what I would like to look at.so instead of thousands, lol, there are 3 Smug pages..Wow!:o
Thats just colors.Lol...

Subscribed

Looking forward to all of the great images!


Jason C

Subscribing.

Um, stupid question alert. Can a photo be entered that has won a prior competition, that was taken within the allowed time-frame?

Jason C

Yes. We purposefully didn't follow any prior competitons (including the lmsys) so that we wouldn't be swayed. As long as the photo fits in the guidelines in the first post, it's eligible.

sounds good to me

Congratulations to the winners of week 1.

This was such a hard week for me. I had 4 "1 point" photos and had to make a choice between them, that's never happened to me before. One other judge mentioned to me that they had several favorites as well. What a way to start the year.

vmlopes wrote in post #11209051
The Dovecote

Nikon = D700
ISO = 320
Aperture = f/11
Shutter = 5 exposure HDR
Lens = Nikkor 18-35mm
Focal Length = 21mm
01/11/2010

airbutchie wrote in post #11212475
Sneak-Peak Wedding Kiss...

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/airbutchie/4786​556827/

Canon 1Ds2 + 85mm f/1.2L @ f/2
Aperture Priority
ISO @ 100
Shutter Speed @ 1/3200 second

lavanut wrote in post #11232767
Pressured to Achieve...

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

7D
100mm macro
f/4
1/250
ISO 200

Honorable Mentions:
Barb W's "Back in the Day"
Harm's "Chilean Escape"
Focal Princess's "Fall Color"

Permie and the other judges you do a thankless task.......in the company here I am shocked!! truly thanks to all

Great job everyone

Comments this year are optional for each judge. So if we have time to post them, we will do that.

REMEMBER that the comments posted here are intended to be constructive & helpful for you to either a: understand the way your photo was judged or b: to offer helpful suggestions for improvement. Because each judge is an individual, you may find conflicting comments about your photo. Again, it's because judging is an individual opinion of the photo in front of us. We don't score as a committee. So take what you read as suggestions and hopefully, it may help in the future.

Winning photos will NOT be commented on, until the end of the month judging.

NOTE: Forum photo size allows for 1024 on the long size. It is MUCH easier to judge a larger photo so use your max size if your sharing site allows it.

1. Jason C "Last to Fall":
Well composed. Nice use of DOF. Subject was not a strong as the weekly competition, but a nicely done photo.

2. 35mmNewbie: (waterfall)
First suggestion would be to use the maximum photo size that the forum allows. 1024 on the longest side. It is hard to judge a photo on a computer screen at such small size. Nice angle on this photo. I like the comp. The things that lost it points were the blown highlights and darks.

3. Mrsmacdeezy: (flower)
This is a very pretty photo. Nice composition. Colors are great. I have no suggestions for improvement.

4. Cotmweasel: (guitar)
I love this. Great colors. Nice abstract. Well done.

5. Pward1980: (train)
This is another shot that I really liked and wanted to score higher than I actually did. There were some technical faults that took it down. (Horizon is tilted, the blacks are lost in places & the whites are a bit gray.) Overall it is well composed (just fix the horizon) and an interesting subject & nice use of leading lines. Good shot in general. Just remember to give attention to details when converting in post and you'll have a winner here.

6. Harleypugs "being a baby is hard work"
Very cute shot. Nice conversion. The big thing for me here is that the lighting draws your eye to the baby's back, not it's face. In a portrait, you want to connect with the eyes and be drawn outward. Still a very nice shot.

7. Kilvas (squirrel)
Nice job of filling the frame with your subject but be careful not to cut off part of the subject (unless you are doing a close up portrait) losing a piece of the tail immediately draws the eyes to that. Other suggestions: processing would help this shot a great deal. One help would be to adjust the levels (or curves) and suddenly you've got some contrast to draw the eye.

8. Flo (grass)
Pretty colors. Beautiful bokeh. Good use of leading lines. A nice still life. Subject was just not strong in comparison to competitors.

9. Focal Princess "Fall Color"
I love market shots. This one has nice colors & nice use of dof. One thing to consider: composition. It's not quite thirds. Not quite bisected. Just has an unsettling comp for me. Otherwise nice job.

10. Harm "Chilean Escape"
Nice shot. My only real suggestion is to maybe correct the magenta CA in pp.

11. Airfrogusmc "Fall wet & red"
Pretty shot. Really nice use of DOF. I love how you did not completely blur away the background. Great comp too.

12. BarbW "Back in the day".
This was on of my 1pt shots. There is not a thing wrong with it. Great use of low perspective. Excellent conversion. Great shot.

13. Reyno "Along Sleep Hollow Trail"
I REALLY liked this shot. It was so interesting. It made me look at it for a long time. I'm not a fan of extra strong vignettes but this is one instance where it worked. My only markdown for this shot is that it looks like her face is soft. That the focus appears to be on the elbow. If that isn't the case, then I have nothing to add. Mood-wise it definitely achieves what you've listed as your title.

14. Geno CA "More Bondo Please"
Another one I really liked. Interesting subject. Great title to go with it too. Nice moody conversion. I am of two minds on the leaning buildings...on one hand it bugs me...on another, it's somewhat creative...just a minor point...because it leaves me waffling, it's unsettling. Blacks are gone, but it's not terrible in this photo...just a point to consider.

15. Macroshot "Taking a Ride"
Great comp on this. Nice subject. Processing was pushed a bit much for me. It looks pixelated around the people. Not sure if that was because of a web compression thing or?

16. thatkatmatt "A Mother's Love"
Another shot that I love. It moved me. Excellent comp. I would have liked to see the focus on the baby's eye, rather than the cheek. But otherwise, really nicely done.

Congrats winners and hms! Thank you for the critique!

Jason C