April's Challenge

Well once again congrats to Bryce for his image of the flower in the road image. Bryce chose the challenge for April. So everyone needs to start looking for REFLECTIONS, not just any reflections though. Your reflection must include water in some form as a part of the image. So you have about 3 days to start thinking of your idea for next months challenge. I will remind you that you cannot shoot the image before April 1st and it must be uploaded or emailed to me before April 21st. So good hunting gals and guys, I am looking for more photographers if you know someone who shoots with a digital slr that would like to join let me know.

Photoman

And the winner is.....

The Scores are Entry 6 - 69 points, Entry 5 - 69 points, Entry 4 - 74 points, Entry 3 - 65 points, Entry 2 - 65 points and Entry 1 - 79 points.

So the winner is Entry #1 by Bryce Holland with 79 points, way to go Bryce nice shot. Bryce will choose from a list of themes for next months theme. I will post the new theme as soon as I get an answer from Bryce.

Don't forget to take a shot at judging an image from one of our Judges, this judge learned real quick just how dificult this months challenge was. Be nice but rate the image honestly on the same things we are rated on.

Photoman

Roadside Distraction

I will have the winner posted shortly, I just found out that judge #3 has sent me their scores via email instead of uploading them directly so I will post their scores soon and name the winner as well.

Photoman

From a Judge - Roadside Distraction

O.K. Photographers here is an image from one of the judges it is this judges idea of a roadside distraction. Here is your turn to critique the judges. So be nice but be honest and tell this judge what you think of their image as it relates to this months competition.



Photoman

Entry 6

Judges and photographers, I am allowing this entry to go up late as it is my fault. It was sent to me yesterday and I didn't upload it. I was having trouble with my email and I got a phone call today from the photographer asking why their photograph wasn't up. I apologize for my error.

Entry 5

Entry 4

Entry 3

Entry 2

Entry 1

Reminder of the rules!

I am sorry that I have not said anything sooner and that some of you have done this for both challenges now, but I need to stop it now before it becomes an issue. This was brought up to me by one of the judges and it is a clear violation of the rules. I am sure that it was overlooked as I had to reread the rules to be sure that it was a rule. First let me talk about another issue that will be dealt with later, the rules state that each of the images must be uploaded anonymously and that I would give each of you a unique id to use to upload your images so that know one would know who's images are who's. I have not given anyone a unique id and I don't intend to at this time but if you guys think it would be best, we can go this route sooner than later. That is the best way to be anonymous, this however is not the rule in question but it will have to be dealt with soon I am sure. The rule that is in question I will be starting to enforce during March's challenge. The rule states that the images must be uploaded without any words of description and no names or titles. I will start enforcing this rule based on the fact that I feel that the image must speak for itself. Any person viewing your image should be able to understand the theme just from looking at the image. Sorry if this sounds harsh but if your image needs a description to express the theme then it probably shouldn't be entered. The idea of this challenge is to make us as photographers really think about our image and use the camera to capture the theme.

O.K. guys let me say that the judging was a bit messed up this month, I don't know if I didn't make myself clear enough or what. I am able to announce a winner even though all the judges didn't judge everyone. One of us had a perfect score from all of the judges. Therefore there is no way the rest of us can beat him. So Congratulations go to Jeff West this month for his image of the guy with the bad habit and messy hair. By the way Jeff is also the model in his image, sort of a self portrait I guess. All kidding aside it was a great image and when I first saw it I knew that I wasn't going to win. Way to go Jeff, you get the bragging rights for the next month and you get to name the next challenge.

Before I tell what Jeff has decide on for the next challenge I would like to say welcome to 3 new photographers. They are being named in the order that they accepted their invitation to join. Welcome David Jackson, Todd Kuhns and Saralee Lenhart. It is no longer a male only competition guys we have a lady among us now. For you newbies the other 4 photographers are myself (Gary Phillips), Earl Pitman, Jeff West and Bryce Holland. So welcome and II look forward to seeing what images you will each come up with for the March Challenge.

O.K. the new challenge is Roadside Distractions. The rules for this post are the same as always and the rules that are specific to this challenge are as follows. First we mean literal roadside distractions not metaphorical ones, and you must include the road in your image not just the distraction. i.e. if your roadside distraction is on the highway you must include the highway in your image. That is it so good hunting everyone. A reminder to the newbies you must post your image by midnight the 20th, any image uploaded after that will not be judged.

Photoman - aka - Gary Phillips

For the Judges

I need to apologize to the judges, I forgot to tell them this last month so I am letting them know now. Sorry to drop the ball on you, if you have any questions please let me know.

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.

Photoman

Love in the Streets

This month's challenge made me think long and hard on how I would shoot this. My original plan was to compose another "oh, that's so sweet" shot. Well, I think God had a different plan.

I went with our Journalism class on their photoshoot for their next issue of The Spectrum; and would you know it, their theme is love! That got me to thinking. Jesus often demonstrated his unconditional love in unconventional ways, often in dirty environments. Think about it. The ten lepers would not have smelled or looked very nice when Jesus healed them!

So that is why I'm titling my entry "Love in the Streets." I'm pretty sure that you'll get it once you see it.

Unconditional Love

Unconditional Love

Unconditional Love

Private Fair stands proudly at the entrance to the Dayton VA Medical Center, as a never ending reminder, to all, of the Unconditional Love … given by the men and women who have served in the Military and in some cases made the ultimate sacrifice. Private Fair, we salute you all!

36 hours to go!

36 hours to get your images posted.

36 hours to go!

36 hours to get your images posted.

Unconditional Love...?!

This is a great twist to the ever long and sterotyped V-day crap. Gary, I think you've hit it head on! This is a tough one, and I look forward to seeing everybodies work!

Above all things, do this for our Lord, and then have fun doing it! Peace,
jeff

And the winner is.......

O.K. let me first apologize for the way the judging was handled. At the beginning of the challenge I set up guidelines for the judging but then when it came time for the judging I forgot to tell the judges the guidelines. So the judging was not done on a point basis as I had planned. I also want to apologize if you think the judging was a bit harsh. I wasn't going to allow the judges to post critiques but then I decide that it was good for us to hear what other people think when they see our images so I allowed the critiques to remain a part of the judging process. Please try and take the criticism with a spirit of grace and meekness. The 3rd judge in particular was a bit harsh but I felt that the judges remarks are what you would expect in a true photography competition with open professional judges. That said I am going to instruct all of the judges to tone it down a bit in the future. My intention for this blog is for it to help us learn about photography and our cameras so that we will be better photographers. If I don't allow critiques from the judges we will not learn how to compose our images better in the future.

That said I will now explain the way I chose the winner for this months challenge. I had 3 judges judge each of the images 1st through 4th place. Each image was awarded a place by each judge. 1st place = 4 pts, 2nd place = 3 pts, 3rd place = 2 pts and 4th place = 1 pt. So for instance if an image received 1 1st place vote and 2 3rd place votes the total scores would be 8 points. The image that scores the most points will be the winner for this months challenge.

4th place winner = Eyes of Time with 5 points by Earl Pitman
3rd place winner = Elowen with 6 points by Bryce Holland
2nd place winner = Brown Eyes with 8 points by Jeff West
1st place winner = Eyes with 9 points by Gary Phillips

Winner of the challenge wins the opportunity to pick the theme for an upcoming challenge and bragging rights for the next month.

Next month is the month of Valentines day so I thought it would be appropriate for the theme to relate to love, but I wanted to narrow our focus a bit so instead of just saying the theme is love I decided that the theme for February will be "UNCONDITIONAL LOVE". I gave you a head start but the image still has to be shot on or after Feb 1st and on or before Feb 20th.

Congratulations to everyone but I really want to get more people involved. I would like to see about 10 photographers by March. I want everyone to try and invite one other photographer to participate and have them signed up by March 1st.

Photoman