A challenge

[bramley]

Everyone likes one apparently. I think the monthly comps are good, BUT the big problem with them is that people scour their hard drives for any image they think might fit the subject, however tenuous the link, and that gets entered.

I may be wrong, but I don't think anyone ever sees the theme, thinks about it and then goes out to shoot something specifically for it. That's a real shame I reckon. We have a whole month to do it, yet we're too lazy and try and take the easy option of entering something we already have. I have to say some entries are very good, and I've taken the lazy option myself so I'm not just criticising others, but don't you think we'd all develop and learn more if we actually got off our backsides and shot to a theme each month?

I feel I need to be pushed and have a challenge put in front of me, reading all the 2008 objectives people have written it seems I'm not alone. I'm also feeling rather lame for having thousands of pounds worth of camera gear sitting at home and thinking "Oh, this month's theme is Wild, I don't think I've got anything that fits that, maybe next month".

HOW LAME IS THAT!?

Come on peeps - let's get off our backsides and get out of our comfort zones!

Thoughts...?

ETA: Some great stuff gets entered in the comps each month, I'm not knocking them at all, my reason for posting this is purely about the effort, skill, creativity and learning that we could get more of through getting off our arses. I'm not suggesting we check exif data to make sure the entries were taken in that month, no way, and sometimes the perfect shot will exist on one's hard drive already, but I think we're all too lazy!

Edited by bramley on Friday 11th January 11:11

[DH2]

Agreed.
Can we ban crap baby and pet photos too please

DH2

[iamlofi]

I have setup a Flickr group


http://www.flickr.com/groups/pistonheadsphotochall...

membership is free for std account

i think we could run them from there!

This way we can assure that the photo's are taken that week / month using Exif data

Edited by iamlofi on Friday 11th January 12:50

[havoc]

I think that'll favour the semi-pros and the self-employed though.

I work too long hours to get out during the week, and I need to 'share' my weekend time between the mundane (housework/DIY/washing cars), what I want to do, and what the wife wants to do. So my free time to go taking photos is very limited...as a result >90% of my photos are pre-planned stuff - holidays, races, days out etc.

...add in the vagarities of the British weather and someone like me could go an entire month without the opportunity to get out of the house*.

So while it's a lovely idea, I'll have to vote against it.

• And don't say 'make the time' - I'm not in a position to 'make the time' without getting a P45 and/or a divorce...I like my photography, but it's a hobby, not a life!

[iamlofi]

we can run 2 week comp or a month comp i just set that up as an example the rules can be changed etc to what ever we want

Challenge topics of the ones i use are things like

Water
Green
Energy

Now these can be taken with little or no time in the house. The winner of the water one was someone capturing water dropping from a tap

Edited by iamlofi on Friday 11th January 12:57

[bramley]

Hmm, I wouldn't want to upset the current monthly comp though. Anyone else got views on whether this idea of being a bit more proactive should be done either:

a) within the existing monthly comp (and if you wanna make an effort you can, and if you wanna use an existing image you can i.e. nothing changes as such, it's just down to mentality for those that want to take on a bit more of a challenge/put in a bit more effort)

or

b) some people from here either create a separate comp/challenge each month, or we join in with something like that elsewhere (I think the Canon EOS forum do one - not so good for the Nikon users lol). I think maybe Photosig do them too. Perhaps people know of others? The thing is if it's something new it kinda needs to reach a critical mass before it's worth doing.

The current comp is quite nice because it attracts people of all abilities which is good, so I'm leaning towards option a. That way everyone still feels they can enter, and those that want to put more effort in can do, and we can discuss ideas etc in the chat thread, and it may inspire others too. I have a lot to learn and I think this kinda thing would help.

[iamlofi]

There could be 2 thing run at once

One Monthly comp open to everything

Then say one weekly comp which is dedicated to different challenges.

The one im a member of i great as sometimes the challenges are based around different camera techniques like slow shutter, DOF etc which has helped me learn from it.

They could be both run from the same Flickr page

[bramley]

havoc said:

I think that'll favour the semi-pros and the self-employed though.

I work too long hours to get out during the week, and I need to 'share' my weekend time between the mundane (housework/DIY/washing cars), what I want to do, and what the wife wants to do. So my free time to go taking photos is very limited...as a result >90% of my photos are pre-planned stuff - holidays, races, days out etc.

...add in the vagarities of the British weather and someone like me could go an entire month without the opportunity to get out of the house*.

So while it's a lovely idea, I'll have to vote against it.

• And don't say 'make the time' - I'm not in a position to 'make the time' without getting a P45 and/or a divorce...I like my photography, but it's a hobby, not a life!

Fair point. With a second baby due any day I'm not flushed with time either! I think this confirms again that we shouldn't change anything as such i.e. run with existing comp, but lets just see if some of us with the time or desire can put a bit more effort into it, and perhaps get the chat thread bursting with ideas of what would make a good subject/shot etc and go from there.

I remain convinced that more of us should put more effort in, and not all comp subjects will need a great deal of time out of the house, some may even be something you can do in the evening for example.

[Byker28i]

Hum, I haven't entered on here, but on a couple of other forums I have and always make the point of going out and taking the shot for that month. It's about the learning process for me.

[hawkaye]

iamlofi said:

This way we can assure that the photo's are taken that week / month using Exif data

I'm up for a challenge. Although, I wouldn't trust exif, it's easy to change.

[Dogsey]

bramley said:

Hmm, I wouldn't want to upset the current monthly comp though. Anyone else got views on whether this idea of being a bit more proactive should be done either:

a) within the existing monthly comp (and if you wanna make an effort you can, and if you wanna use an existing image you can i.e. nothing changes as such, it's just down to mentality for those that want to take on a bit more of a challenge/put in a bit more effort)

or

b) some people from here either create a separate comp/challenge each month, or we join in with something like that elsewhere (I think the Canon EOS forum do one - not so good for the Nikon users lol). I think maybe Photosig do them too. Perhaps people know of others? The thing is if it's something new it kinda needs to reach a critical mass before it's worth doing.

The current comp is quite nice because it attracts people of all abilities which is good, so I'm leaning towards option a. That way everyone still feels they can enter, and those that want to put more effort in can do, and we can discuss ideas etc in the chat thread, and it may inspire others too. I have a lot to learn and I think this kinda thing would help.

I like your idea and I think option a) should suit everyone best. Maybe those that want to could sign up to some sort of mandate along the lines of "I promise that whenever possible I will take my entry for this months competition this month."

I'm not at all keen on taking a PH competiton outside of PH, there are plenty of other websites where you can enter competitions should anyone feel that what we do here doesn't suit their ideals.

[bramley]

Dogsey said:

I like your idea and I think option a) should suit everyone best. Maybe those that want to could sign up to some sort of mandate along the lines of "I promise that whenever possible I will take my entry for this months competition this month."

I'm not at all keen on taking a PH competiton outside of PH, there are plenty of other websites where you can enter competitions should anyone feel that what we do here doesn't suit their ideals.

Yep I think option a) is better too. Maybe I'm too trusting but I wasn't really thinking of having an exif check or anything, just leave it up to the individual. My thinking is that the comp chat thread becomes a bit more of a discussion place rather than just somewhere to display what's on your hard drive, so perhaps we could do a sort of brainstorm when a new subject is announced to get everyone thinking about it. It wouldn't hurt if two people went off to shoot the same thing, inevitable the results would look different anyway, and I'm sure we'd all learn from seeing that process happen.

So in summary, I think we just need to prompt people to go and shoot for the comp, which the winner of the previous month could do in the new comp thread?

(That was a long-winded way of reaching that simple conclusion eh?!)

[crmcatee]

or make the competition something so unique that people have got to go and shoot specific things...

I posted this last week but some food for thought..

Extreme photo competition

Some topics to shoot include :

“A Cheating Wife: You need to make a photo of a man, “a lover”, hanging outside the real window. The window should be not lower than a 3rd store of a multi-stored building. “A husband” should lean out from another window with a gun, aiming at “the lover”. From yet another window “the cheating wife” should look out in despair.”

“A Zombie: A man, rolled up in bandages should crawl on his stomach at a pedestrian crossing. He should have a knife sticking out of his back. Another guy should chase him with a working chainsaw”


You just know that no-one's going to have one of those in their collection

[Mrs Fish]

DH2 said:

Agreed.
Can we ban crap baby and pet photos too please

DH2

With two young kids I don't have much chance of getting out, so if they fulfil a theme I am going to use them, same as using photos on my hardrive. If I can get out and take a picture that month that fulfils the theme then I will

I do dee the point of the OP though, and if I had the chance I would go out far more, it just isn't sensible with two kids unfortunately.

[Mrs Fish]

Also if the winners of the comp choose an easier theme... ie.. indoors, the garden, food, the workplace etc just a thought

[agent006]

THe PH monthly competition used to have a "must be taken this month" rule when it first started.

[_dobbo_]

agent006 said:

THe PH monthly competition used to have a "must be taken this month" rule when it first started.

Indeed - infact I stopped entering after a while because it just turned into an exercise in finding an image from the hard disk rather than something to inspire us to get out with our cameras. Nowt wrong with that but it's not for me, I wanted to be inspired by how other people had chosen to interpret the theme that month.

[havoc]

Well lets have two competitions then:-

A "take this month" competition for those with time and opportunity (and to encourage those without every-so-often). Arguably broader and/or simpler topics.

An "any entry permissible" competition for those of us who just don't have the time regularly. IMHO more interesting/diverse/left-field topics...and DEFINITELY topics which avoid the kids/pets* photos that seem to be cropping up all the time!!!

• Martin's insects and Carter's deer/dolphin/etc. are great - they've deliberately gone out there to find something. But ****'s pet dog or baby boy/girl gets tedious after you've seen 6 different versions from 6 different people...

[Goldeeno]

I think doing our own PH one would be good.. i think theres already a flcikr group by the way... might be better to try and hijack that group??
As for when the photos were taken, i dont think it matters, as long as it fits the theme.

[DanH]

bramley said:

Everyone likes one apparently. I think the monthly comps are good, BUT the big problem with them is that people scour their hard drives for any image they think might fit the subject, however tenuous the link, and that gets entered.

It's the tenuousness that I find awful!