Theme ideas

[jbr13]

The March theme has come to an end for submissions and I am sure Twilight is working on how to start judging. Before the next theme starts I thought I would post a question or two to the group.

1. Do we want to do themes like "Reflections" for an entire month or do we want to do a two week theme time limit.

2. What rules if any need to be added or changed....I will post the rules we have used to this point below.

3. What is any other things need attention?



Normal Rules:
1. Every participant is allowed one picture per challenge.

2. The picture has to have been taken within the last six months. This is to make it a "Challenge" and not just another "Best
Picture Contest"

3. The posted picture must remain unaltered, once posted.
But the text of the participation may be edited/changed, as often as
necessary (for possible exceptions contact the Challenge Leader)!

4. Pictures may be processed in post production
before submitting them, but the main picture/content must not have been
changed or altered.

5. Remember, this is a community forum and lets keep the images good for viewing of all ages.

6. If there are any questions or obscurities the Challenge Leader is the
person to appeal and to decide.

7. The actual Challenge Leader has the freedom to alter the rules,
if reasonable (except Rule 5 perhaps). But he/she has to make sure the rules
are clearly stated and applied to all submissions.

8. Please keep this a fun and interesting forum. Using MPD's to vote more than once for someone isn't helping anyone have fun.

This is to boost the photograhy forum, have some fun and better all of us, so if you have any questions of coments on photography feel free to ask them in this the "Topic Thread"

PLEASE give you photo a title so we can refer to it in the voting!!

 

[hvp05]

1. Do we want to do themes like "Reflections" for an entire month or do we want to do a two week theme time limit.

I would say a month just so everyone can be ensured one good chance to get moving on it. But most everyone seems to submit within the first couple weeks anyhow, so... :shrug:

I have thought that themes should be more limited. Like with "Action"; that could include a hundred thousand different types of things. And it would help spur people to shoot something new, instead of pulling something out of their favorites bin. If the themes are too broad, you won't get much further before you find yourself shooting that theme again.

 

[Sarah Lynn]

I think the theme this month should be a color.

 

[jbr13]

My opinion so far has been it is nice to let the winner decide on the topics. They can pick one as vague or as specific as they like. If it is vague, it give people a chance to be creative and do something totally different then everyone else. If we get to specific, you may find that we all start shooting the same thing in very similar ways.

As for time frames, I like the two week themes. Don't have to wait around as long for the next one. I don't mind though if we would do a one week or a one month theme time limit. The other thing that would be cool is from time to time limit it to pictures taken during the time frame of the contest. For example....Theme "Wildflowers" and you have the next two weeks to go out and take pictures and submit them. That makes it a little more challenging.

The nice thing is when a person wins they can put out what ever rules they want. Just make sure you post them at the top of each thread so people can see them and follow.

And as always having FUN is the best rule!

 

[Jameo]

My opinion so far has been it is nice to let the winner decide on the topics. They can pick one as vague or as specific as they like. If it is vague, it give people a chance to be creative and do something totally different then everyone else. If we get to specific, you may find that we all start shooting the same thing in very similar ways.

As for time frames, I like the two week themes. Don't have to wait around as long for the next one. I don't mind though if we would do a one week or a one month theme time limit. The other thing that would be cool is from time to time limit it to pictures taken during the time frame of the contest. For example....Theme "Wildflowers" and you have the next two weeks to go out and take pictures and submit them. That makes it a little more challenging.

The nice thing is when a person wins they can put out what ever rules they want. Just make sure you post them at the top of each thread so people can see them and follow.

And as always having FUN is the best rule!

Sounds good to me!

 

[Inkpen]

My opinion so far has been it is nice to let the winner decide on the topics. They can pick one as vague or as specific as they like. If it is vague, it give people a chance to be creative and do something totally different then everyone else. If we get to specific, you may find that we all start shooting the same thing in very similar ways.

As for time frames, I like the two week themes. Don't have to wait around as long for the next one. I don't mind though if we would do a one week or a one month theme time limit. The other thing that would be cool is from time to time limit it to pictures taken during the time frame of the contest. For example....Theme "Wildflowers" and you have the next two weeks to go out and take pictures and submit them. That makes it a little more challenging.

The nice thing is when a person wins they can put out what ever rules they want. Just make sure you post them at the top of each thread so people can see them and follow.

And as always having FUN is the best rule!

:mikey:

 

[jbr13]

Don't let my post discourage anyone else from posting their own opinions though. THis is for everyone and to make things the best for everyone. Post away on what you would like to see. Themes like Red, Blue Green, mud, trees, or whatever. Any rule changes or one time challenges....anything that may help the next winners to come up with a good idea.

 

[Inkpen]

How about this:
Theme runs for 2 weeks..keeps it fresh!!

Winner picks theme.

Folks can submit up to 3 images.

Winner selects final selection..and must select one only from each person.

Images must be taken in time frame...2 weeks..whatever..

Top three winners go one to be judges for next contest.

How is that?

 

[Nickel]

Here's another way to handle the time limit: since you can only have 15 selections in a poll, let the contest run until you get 15 submissions (only one submission per forumite); first come, first served. To deter people from flooding the contest with old images on the first day, make a stipulation that photographs must have been taken after the start of the contest.

 

[mamissa3]

this seem like a good idea. Sometimes when you are out you happen to get that picture so maybe being able to add 3 would be a good thing.

How about this:
Theme runs for 2 weeks..keeps it fresh!!

Winner picks theme.

Folks can submit up to 3 images.

Winner selects final selection..and must select one only from each person.

Images must be taken in time frame...2 weeks..whatever..

Top three winners go one to be judges for next contest.

How is that?

 

[hvp05]

They can pick one as vague or as specific as they like. If it is vague, it give people a chance to be creative and do something totally different then everyone else. If we get to specific, you may find that we all start shooting the same thing in very similar ways.

Obviously, most everyone will have different ideas on what is "too specific" (or "too general") and what is not. When I posted earlier, I was thinking "Action" could have been narrowed down to at least something like "Sports Action" or "Kids in Action" without excess commonality between photos.

If the theme was "Little League Baseball Action" then you can pretty much guarantee 20+ entries of some kid throwing a baseball, so that would be too constricting. Of course, the way I think, if I know so many other people are out shooting LL Baseball games, I would force myself to look for something different - something not everyone else would see. In that way, having a narrow theme could push people to think a little more outside their comfort zone.

Ultimately, I wish people would do more of that - break their normal bounds and ideas, and holding these themes is a potentially engaging way to make it happen... but I don't know how many people would actually do that.

Here's another way to handle the time limit: since you can only have 15 selections in a poll, let the contest run until you get 15 submissions (only one submission per forumite); first come, first served. To deter people from flooding the contest with old images on the first day, make a stipulation that photographs must have been taken after the start of the contest.

I like this. Either that or limit everyone to one, IMO. If everyone has three chances and up to a month to post that's a heck of a lot of photos for the judge(s) to wade through.

 

[Loper]

Obviously, most everyone will have different ideas on what is "too specific" (or "too general") and what is not. When I posted earlier, I was thinking "Action" could have been narrowed down to at least something like "Sports Action" or "Kids in Action" without excess commonality between photos.

If the theme was "Little League Baseball Action" then you can pretty much guarantee 20+ entries of some kid throwing a baseball, so that would be too constricting. Of course, the way I think, if I know so many other people are out shooting LL Baseball games, I would force myself to look for something different - something not everyone else would see. In that way, having a narrow theme could push people to think a little more outside their comfort zone.

Ultimately, I wish people would do more of that - break their normal bounds and ideas, and holding these themes is a potentially engaging way to make it happen... but I don't know how many people would actually do that.



I like this. Either that or limit everyone to one, IMO. If everyone has three chances and up to a month to post that's a heck of a lot of photos for the judge(s) to wade through.

I think we should limit it to one shot per person as well.. otherwise it could get crazy but I guess it could be left to whover is judging and a changing rule each time. I also like having a two week time limit and the picture being taken in that two weeks. The judge maybe could also set up an alternate (not for judging) thread of the same theme for peeps that want to show off older works.

 

[united]

so when will it be decided on what our next assignment will be?

 

[Tomcat]

I like the month long time frame. I had what I thought was a great idea for the reflections, just never had time to do it. I'm still going to do it, just not for the contest. Not all of us have lots of free time on our hands. Just my $.02 worth

 

[jbr13]

I think we should limit it to one shot per person as well.. otherwise it could get crazy but I guess it could be left to whover is judging and a changing rule each time. I also like having a two week time limit and the picture being taken in that two weeks. The judge maybe could also set up an alternate (not for judging) thread of the same theme for peeps that want to show off older works.

We usually have a topic thread that is for discussion and what ever else people want to post, that way it keeps BS out of the submission thread. People just don't pay attention to it.



I like this. Either that or limit everyone to one, IMO. If everyone has three chances and up to a month to post that's a heck of a lot of photos for the judge(s) to wade through.[/QUOTE]


If everyone read the rules to the challenges, you are only aloud to enter one entry, and photos must have be taken in the last six months and through the end date of the contest. That is the way it has been for the Theme challenges we have done to this point. I think it may be a very good idea to change up the rules some, and to shot within the time given. This makes everyone get out and shot and not just pull from their inventory of photos.


I encourage the next winners to take the rules and make little modifications to them for the better of the theme challenge


J

 

[TwilightImaging]

We usually have a topic thread that is for discussion and what ever else people want to post, that way it keeps BS out of the submission thread. People just don't pay attention to it.



I like this. Either that or limit everyone to one, IMO. If everyone has three chances and up to a month to post that's a heck of a lot of photos for the judge(s) to wade through.

If everyone read the rules to the challenges, you are only aloud to enter one entry, and photos must have be taken in the last six months and through the end date of the contest. That is the way it has been for the Theme challenges we have done to this point. I think it may be a very good idea to change up the rules some, and to shot within the time given. This makes everyone get out and shot and not just pull from their inventory of photos.

I encourage the next winners to take the rules and make little modifications to them for the better of the theme challenge
J[/QUOTE]

Well said...I think we're onto something...thanks j!!