Our First Challenge

The competition just got announced today and we already got a whiner. I'm not going to mention any names but Jeff oops did I type that, has already started complaining. So yes it has to be physical eyes at least for this month. I just realized that there is no way to make a post without your name going on with it, so we have 2 choices. 1. We can all upload and not worry about the fact that the judges will know who the images belong to. OR 2. Each of you can email me your images and I will upload them all. This way, no one but me and you will know which one is yours. I will let you guys decide what you want to do, so make a post with your decision of which way you prefer to go. Whichever way gets the most votes is the way we will handle it. As for making adjustments to the image, I would have to say that I think minor adjustments in Adobe Raw would be o.k. but only minor. I am allowing exposure adjustment as much as-1 stop to +1 stop but no more than that. So other minor adjustments in Adobe Raw (no LR) would be o.k. BUT NO CROPPING, None Whatsoever. All Images must be full frame right out of the Camera. Remember we will have other challenges later this year that will be more creative and will have a no limits to what you can do, until then you will have to live within these confines. I like Ansel but he would suck like the rest of us in this competition. If we all play by the rules we are all on a level playing field.

O.K. guys it is Jan. 1st, I hope that everyone who is a part of "A Photographic Challenge" whether as a participant or as a judge has a great time and a good year. This is a new endeavor as you all know and I am figuring this out as we go, so I hope it isn't to bumpy of a road we are heading down.

Let me explain some basic instructions and then I will get more specific with instructions for this months challenge. As you should know this is the first of 12 challenges that will occur each month. Here are some of the rules that I would like us all to adhere to (keep in mind there is no way that I can enforce these rules). If I find out that you have knowingly violated a rule you will be eliminated from that months competition and the next one as well. If repeated offenses of the rules are happening you will simply be kicked out of the competition. I am sure that none of this is necessary but without rules their is no competition. Rule #1 - All participants must use a digital SLR (sorry no film). Rule #2 - You must shoot in a manual setting i.e. M - manual, AV - aperture priority or TV - shutter priority. No automatic settings please, the purpose of this competition is for us to learn more about our cameras and become better photographers. Rule #3 - No manipulation of the images in computer. (exceptions to this rule are: sharpening, dpi, B&W, minor exposure adjustments 1 stop up or down max.) Examples of illegal manipulations - Cropping, colorizing, removing objects from image, clone stamping, straightening image horizon, hue and saturation, etc. Once again, let me remind you that the goal of this challenge is to encourage us to become better photographers, these things should all be done before we take the photo. Rule #4 - All images must be posted by the 20th of each month. Images posted after midnight on the 20th will not be allowed in the judging. Rule #5 - All entries must be shot between the 1st and the 20th of the competition month to be eligible for that months competition. I.E. if you have a great image from last year that would fit this months competition you can't use it. If it is the month of March 2009 then the image must be made between March 1st 2009 and March 20th 2009. Rule #6 - All images must be uploaded Anonymously. When you upload your image you cannot write anything about it, just post an image only. No name or nickname for you or the image is allowed. I will give each one a unique I.D. # for the judges sake once they are uploaded. That is all that I can think of at the moment, I am sure that more general rules will become apparent once we get this thing going. Let me tell you how the judging will work. The judging board consists of 3 judges, who will have 7 days to judge the images and and email me with their results. I will then tally the results and post them for all to see, any discrepancies will be dealt with publicly on the blog so that everyone will know that I am not cheating. Rules for the judges - Rule #1 - All images must be judged by midnight on the 27th. Rule #2 - If a judge finds out who an image belongs to they cannot judge for that month and must let me know so that I can find an alternate judge for that months competition. Judging Criteria - (The basic criteria for each months competition will not change, some months there may be special criteria that the judges will be looking for.) There are 5 areas that each image will be judged for and 4 of the areas are worth a maximum of 5 points One area is worth 10 points, so a perfect score is 30 points. Areas of judging are 1. Composition - 5pts 2. Relevance to Topic 5 - pts 3. Artistic Expression 10 - pts 4. Focus 5 - pts and 5. Exposure 5 pts. As you can see the technical areas are worth less than the artistic area, I want you to push yourself to be more artistic than technical. But I also have it set up so that you cannot win it on artistic expression only. All images should be technically sound as well as artistic. These rules and criteria will be basic for each of the competitions, below you will find the Challenge for this month and any specific rules related to this months competition.
January's competition category is "Eyes" from a living organism, i.e. human, animal, bug, etc. No plants or non living organisms.
Remember to upload an image only, by midnight on the 20th.
Happy Shooting
Photoman