SMB Photography Challenge

AB22 Easy Tiger · 27th December 2010, 04:46 PM

The rules and guidelines are as follows:

This is a challenge for ALL members to enter, regardless of skill, technique, knowledge, or camera.

The themes have been selected to challenge us as photographers whilst ensuring we retain an interest in the competition – so none will be so technical that it will be off-putting to the casual photographer, but should keep the more experienced shooter interested.

General info :

There are 12 rounds, each running calendar monthly.
Only one photograph can be entered into the vote per round per member, the exception being polyptych entries.
The closing date for entries each round will be 23:59 on the last day of the month (Or thereabouts).
If you are happy with Critique, please add "C&C Welcome" to your entry post.
Images will be automatically resized by the board software so you may wish to post a link to the original or larger size image.
Photographs may include a border and post production / Photoshop work.
Images must adhere to current site rules – so no NSFW pictures.
The photo should be taken specifically for the competition in the month that it is entered.
Pictures solely of another piece of art are not allowed

How to submit an entry
Each month, we will start a competition thread. To enter, simply reply to this thread with an image, as per the FAQ guidelines.
There will be a second thread where you can discuss the competition round, and the images already posted.

At the end of the round a poll will be created, where you can vote for your favourite photographs. This will be a multiple choice poll, where you may vote for as many or as few shots as you like.
Voting ends at 23:59 on the 7th of the following month (roughly 7 days voting).

Scoring: One vote = One point. It's as simple as that. The more votes you get in a round, the more points.
The entrant with the most points each round will be win “Picture of the month” and go forward to the 2011 Picture of the Year vote, where the 12 winning entries will be voted on again to choose a single Picture of the Year.

(If the monthly vote ends in a tie, the organiser (that's me) will make a casting vote based on A) which entry best meets the theme, then b) which entry has the better technical merit- and yes, I know that's subjective based on what I see in front of me).

Any single poster with more than two monthly wins will be asked to choose two of their winning shots to go into the end of year poll. For the months not chosen by that poster, the monthly runner up will be entered into the year end poll.
The entrant with the most points in the end of year poll will take the title.

As yet, there is no annual prize other than the kudos of winning, but if I can organise a prize I will do so.

Comments welcome.

peachbum · 27th December 2010, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AB22 Easy Tiger

As I said elsewhere, we've changed things a wee bit for 2011 to try to keep the interest up and challenge us as photographers

So, the rules and guidelines for 2011 are going to be as follows:

Comments welcome.

As all 12 themes have already been chosen I could post them all in advance. Would you like to see this or shall we keep it as it is?

Do the photos have to be taken in the month of the theme eg if theme for March is "pigs" does the picture have to be taken in March. I personally quite like being tied to the month. If we knew all 12 themes in advance, and could take the pictures any time I personally wouldn't be as inspired.

I quite like finding the theme out on a monthly basis personally.

AB22 Easy Tiger · 27th December 2010, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peachbum

Do the photos have to be taken in the month of the theme eg if theme for March is "pigs" does the picture have to be taken in March. I personally quite like being tied to the month. If we knew all 12 themes in advance, and could take the pictures any time I personally wouldn't be as inspired.

I quite like finding the theme out on a monthly basis personally.

I just tweaked the rules as you were posting. Yes, it'll have to be taken in the month of entry.

I've had a few complaints regarding the voting - the main one that it appears cliquey. (It is the SMB after all).

I'll be posting some voting guidelines (which you may choose to ignore), that, along with more specific themes, should see the voting become more objective.

janiep · 27th December 2010, 06:36 PM

Sounds good, glad you're doing it again and thanks for doing it this year, I've really enjoyed it.

clyde · 28th December 2010, 07:44 PM

how come all 12 themes have been chosen already? and who chose them?

nice to see this carrying over to 2011 like, have enjoyed it this past year.

AB22 Easy Tiger · 29th December 2010, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clyde

how come all 12 themes have been chosen already? and who chose them?

nice to see this carrying over to 2011 like, have enjoyed it this past year.

Fair questions, especially as it would have been you choosing the January theme.

One of the reasons I suggested running the comp in the first place was to challenge us as photographers and help us to get better at what we do. Whilst the themes for 2010 have gone some way to doing that, I felt that a better way to bring us along would be to have some of the themes based on photographic techniques that people maybe wouldn't normally shoot - and to be able to point to similar themes in competitions elsewhere by way of inspiration (such as the contre jour link I posted on the discussion thread).

We had a similar issue with a photography group I'm affiliated to here and a few of us got together to come up with themes for that competition for 2011. I made e decision to run with the same themes (though in a different order) to try to keep interest in the 2011 comp high, and to hopefully inspire and challenge posters to become better photographers and to have fun shooting.

I hope there won't be any months where members can't think of anything to shoot.

I hope that answers your questions.

clyde · 29th December 2010, 07:43 PM

yeah mate thats great, personally i'd rather try techniques than themes, i think we will learn more this way.
forgot all about that for january to be honest, lol.