Well, I just quickly checked the pictures now available for judging for one specific "impression." I was going to photo it and just wondered if anyone else thought of it. No one did. I was going to photo a child's tooth with a string around it, hanging from a door knob. Unfortunately, I was working out of town most of the week and when I arrived back it was too late to start making phone calls for anyone with a tooth. Dang! I might have taken 1st place.
Originally posted by focus: Well, I just quickly checked the pictures now available for judging for one specific "impression." I was going to photo it and just wondered if anyone else thought of it. No one did. I was going to photo a child's tooth with a string around it, hanging from a door knob. Unfortunately, I was working out of town most of the week and when I arrived back it was too late to start making phone calls for anyone with a tooth. Dang! I might have taken 1st place.
(Well I can dream can't I?)
Actually there is a photo like that in this challenge. It's a photo of a string tied to a door knob and a sign that says pull hard...or something like that.
Yes, I didn't spot it in the thumbnails, but during judging I found it. Without the caption it could have been "setting up a trick door" or something like that. Nonetheless, it worked and worked well. I gave it a good score.
I find myself smiling a lot so far. I found that the "not-so-smiley" photos are down towards the end of voting. However I relate better to those photos, so I'll have to see how my scoring goes when I get there.
Looking through the photos, I see there are a LOT of pictures of swings. I also saw a couple I might classify as disturbing, and a few that just made me go "huh?", even after reading the title. I was also torn on some of the pictures during my initial voting. There were a few very good pictures that I wouldn't have really gotten an impression of childhood from if I had just seen the picture and not the title. Definitely some really good pictures... I've done my initial quick vote, but will be revisiting several during the week.
yes, there were quite a few that would not have made me think "childhood" were it not for the title ... just like the CORPORATE challenge ... we'll see if those photos get tanked similarly, and rant accordingly
DANG ME THAT I HAVE TO ASK THIS!! "Without having a child in the photo" does that mean photos of children and children's body parts??? I would HATE to see these photos "not meet the challenge" but it BOLDLY states NO children. I was wondering what everyone else thought. Sorry to have to go through the weekly discussion of "does or does not meet challenge". I just want to know what everyone elses impression was.
*sigh* Why am I still awake? It's all your fault, Heather. I saw the pic on your profile and had to go find one of myself to post :o)
The photographers knew the topic, and most wouldn't submit a shot that doesn't meet the challenge on purpose. Therefore, I think that it meets the challenge in THEIR mind. I'm gonna be lenient. It's a very nice photo and should do well even if you do take off a point for including part of a child.
I wasn't concerned about how I personally was going to vote. Seems like we are on the same line. However, there was a particular photo in the pencil challenge that I was Horrified that didn't get higher, only because people didn't bother to look at the photo long enough to see that there was a reflection of a pencil in the pen. The photo to me, was depicting his "True Love" the pen, and saying that pencils are only in the background to him. (indicated by the reflection of the pencil into the pen). All his comments said "don't meet the challenge" and he scored very low for a wonderful, "technically correct", visually impressive photo. The way I vote is that every photo meets the challenge (like you said). It has to be REALLY off for me to flat out say "this doesn't meet the challenge" cause I believe in some way (even if for personal reasons) the photo meets the challenge.
Originally posted by indigo997: ... Therefore, I think that it meets the challenge in THEIR mind. I'm gonna be lenient...
that's very nice of you - however, if i entered this pic (apologies to Joshua) and called it "I went to the beach when I was 2", I don't think it would finish in the top half of the draw --- yet it WON the "Stopped Motion" challenge --- meeting the challenge in your own mind is well and good - to me, conveying it to the audience is worth more than 1 point
Originally posted by spiderman: Originally posted by indigo997: [i]... Therefore, I think that it meets the challenge in THEIR mind. I'm gonna be lenient...
that's very nice of you - however, if i entered this pic (apologies to Joshua) and called it "I went to the beach when I was 2", I don't think it would finish in the top half of the draw --- yet it WON the "Stopped Motion" challenge --- meeting the challenge in your own mind is well and good - to me, conveying it to the audience is worth more than 1 point [/i]
I beg to differ!!! i don't know of any child that doesn't chase those darn sea gulls at the beach...or get some kind of joy throwing things at them or watching them try to tear open a McDonald's bag. Or even get a kick out of having their Dad chase sea gulls through a parking lot in the car. (no sea gulls were harmed in the making of this comment) I would have loved to see a sea gull in the challenge. Perfect fit to the challenge for me! Even without the title. Not saying I don't understand your point...but saying that I have a more open mind than most people. (that and I was that little girl throwing sticks at the sea gulls on the beach...that girl?? Oh Yeah, that was ME.) LOL
I'm not saying I give one point for conveying the challenge. I only take off one for not obviously meeting it. Those aren't exactly the same thing. I don't think that a good pic deserves a 1 or 2 just because someone can't see how it meets the challenge. If you have a bad photo, however, merely meeting the challenge isn't going to win any points with me.
Indigo and Heather, you're both so pretty! My user pic was something I photoshopped for a friend of mine (hard to explain), and I thought it looked pretentious enough to put it here on my user page :). Maybe one day I'll replace it with a better one.
Originally posted by indigo997: *sigh* Why am I still awake? It's all your fault, Heather. I saw the pic on your profile and had to go find one of myself to post :o)
Nice choice! :)
* This message has been edited by the author on 8/26/2002 11:24:01 AM.
Heather That photo you mention - I looked at it again and again and again and even wondered if perhaps that yellowish colour in the nib was a reflection of a pencil. Didn't get any reply to my question and I couldn't see "pencil" in it, so it scored lower. Not right right low but lower.
I take your point that every photo meets the challenge for the photograpger but I think about this issue differently: For me it's not just about interpreting the challenge in one's own mind but about conveying the challenge topic to the audience. After all this site is about getting external input into your photographs. So I personally believe, although all photos no doubt meet challenge in the photographers eyes, that my scoring is about how they convey the topic to me... Anyway, just a different viewpoint. :)
* This message has been edited by the author on 8/26/2002 6:21:17 AM.
I am a little disapointed globally by the childhood for what I have seen quickly ... I think too much people have just simply take a shot of something related to the challenge. More than with the pencils I thought (but jsut looking quickly) that a lotof people have just put together some items and take the shot. My impression might change.
One other thing : I have a tendency to think : if I do need to title to understand whu it is related to childhood .. then it does not meet the challenge that much. Because ... that's a 'photo' challenge. Otherwise .. you can take a picture of everything. Like the 'something new ' contest, and you call it 'Hunting insects when I was young' and .. that's it .
An other thing for when it's a very very long shot to the challenge theme. If I think the person did it 'in good faith' I will be less severe. If I think the person just took a shot and then found a title for it so it 'meet the challenge', then I would be seevre. For childhood ... 'everything' could be in childhood. Take last week winner and call it 'Watching my father drawing' .... ? This week I would give '0' to 'meet the challenge'. What do you think ? With the title we can make everything childhoodish
Originally posted by Kavey: Heather That photo you mention - I looked at it again and again and again and even wondered if perhaps that yellowish colour in the nib was a reflection of a pencil. Didn't get any reply to my question and I couldn't see "pencil" in it, so it scored lower. Not right right low but lower.
I take your point that every photo meets the challenge for the photograpger but I think about this issue differently: For me it's not just about interpreting the challenge in one's own mind but about conveying the challenge topic to the audience. After all this site is about getting external input into your photographs. So I personally believe, although all photos no doubt meet challenge in the photographers eyes, that my scoring is about how they convey the topic to [i]me... Anyway, just a different viewpoint. :)
[/i] So the topic were chips And someone posted a photo of French fries, even though they are both made from potatoes, you wouldn't consider it meeting the challenge???
Originally posted by hbunch7187: DANG ME THAT I HAVE TO ASK THIS!! "Without having a child in the photo" does that mean photos of children and children's body parts??? I would HATE to see these photos "not meet the challenge" but it BOLDLY states NO children. I was wondering what everyone else thought. Sorry to have to go through the weekly discussion of "does or does not meet challenge". I just want to know what everyone elses impression was.
My impression is..NO children in the shot. For me that means photos of or body parts of. I am definitely marking down for this, but certainly not trashing them !
Overall, my first impressions are that I am a little disappointed in this weeks entries. I think we recieved more imagination and creativity in the Pencil Challenge. That is not to say that there weren't some super entries as usual. At this point I'm sure glad I didn't take a photo of a swing or a playground as they have a lot of comptetion.
Originally posted by hbunch7187: So the topic were chips And someone posted a photo of French fries, even though they are both made from potatoes, you wouldn't consider it meeting the challenge???
that would depend on the 'intent' of the challenge as i understand it. to come back to the horse picture from the last challenge ... yes, it had a pencil in it, but no, the intent of the challenge was a writing implement, so i scored it low (sorry to use your photo as an example, anton). another example from the pencil challenge: the abstract one with the water and reflection by jean (i don't remember the title of the photo right now). it was a very good abstract photo. i really honestly looked hard at the photo, but still couldn't have pointed out the dividers to be pencils for sure ... even though i liked the photo, i scored it low. sorry, jean, i didn't recognize it.
the point is, i want to be able to see the challenge fulfilled in the photo. even if i assume the challenge must have been fulfilled in the author's mind, if i don't get it, then he/she hasn't been able to bring the point across *to me*. or, if only the title ties the photo to the challenge (for me), then, again, it really doesn't fulfill the challenge as *i* see it. that's the beauty of this site, you get a wild variety of comments. take them all together and they give you an indication of how your photo is interpreted in the big wide world.
that's why it's called a challenge, not just a 'submit your best photo' contest.
so, to answer your question, maybe i would've scored it low, maybe not. depends on how i felt the challenge was meant. if it allowed for creative wordplay, i wouldn't have marked the french fries down. if it specified chips and added a description that excludes french fries to me, then i would've marked it down.
sorry about the long post. i'm gonna go and do some work now.
* This message has been edited by the author on 8/26/2002 11:01:57 AM.
I think you guys already knew that 99.9% of the winners are chosen not based on any sort of criteria, but based on purely on personal taste.
And that's why you also see the difference in ratings between people with cameras (who are more than likely biased toward a way of thinking through the lens) and people who don't.
I have seen lots of very good photographs in terms of technical aspects (clarity, etc.) on this site but i haven't seen as much that captures the "feeling". I see a lot of objects being photographed, but nothign that gives me true feeling (there are a few exceptions but they didn't win each time :))
So I wouldn't be surprised when people dogged on the photographs that made them think, that gives them a darker feeling of childhood (closet photo, the belt, etc.) because they're not comfortable with it. Winning on DpChallenge is nothing to be proud of OR ashamed of :-) Remember, it's a public forum -- it's like asking the internet to judge on a classical piano competition :)
