Photo Competitions

[stepbystep]

Here we go again I here you say

There is a unique opportunity for this site to develop the photo competitions into something rather special given the members get to some of the most photogenic places in Australia.
Also given we are now 'monetised' the opportunity is there for some exploitation of sponsors(existing and potential) to help make the competition more attractive to people who may be not entering for one reason or another. I'm not just thinking attracting new sponsor banner ads but allowing sponsors to use images externally, whether on their own sites or FB page.

What we need is incentive to get out there, be creative and participate. Now a trinket once a year for the photo of the year is really pretty lame considering the already high standard(some months). Have the admins given this much thought?

Anyway, discuss...

[ILUVSWTAS]

It would be nice.

At least a free *&%$#! calendar for the featured artists!!

[stepbystep]

At least a free *&%$#! calendar for the featured artists!!

Yes, agreed. There is however far more potential than that imho for both the artists and the site.

[doogs]

I agree that the potential for prizes isn't mercilessly exploited like it should be. Surely there are plenty of companies out there that would love to use the fantastic photography on this site in exchange for some simple trinkets?

[Hallu]

A partnership with a publishing company, such as Explore Australia, Hema, or individual publishers such as Chapman would be nice yes. Some of their photos don't do justice to the place they describe, and you often tell yourself "I've seen better on the forum". But I think it would only work as a "take what you like" type of deal, we couldn't force them to take the winner of this or that month and publish it. They could launch competitions when they need some pictures for a particular section of Australia, then select and pay for the one they think is best.

[stepbystep]

Nah, the options are endless if the creativity and motivation is there.

These comps have always been run as a sideline on the site but I agree, there are many pics that appear on this forum that are FAR better than much of what is published.
Some real motivation for the 'toggers' that are lurking would lift the standard again, and I know of several lurkers here in Tasmania that are top notch.

[biggbird]

Sounds interesting!

[wildwalks]

Thanks guys for the discussion - please keep bouncing around ideas - would love to see them.
At the moment it is to hard to get sponsors as prizes for the photo comp as our voting rate is to low - just not enough people participating (mostly in voting).

I am playing with ideas to increase the exposure of the competition. (nice pun hey
The thing is people seem motivated to provide images, so we don't need to create an intensive to submit images I don't think. Having a significant prize may actually work against us there, I am not sure a free book etc would attract such a different audience of photographers. But more and more significant exposure may, but I don't want to loose the community feel for this either. Please keep bouncing ideas around.

Matt

[biggbird]

Yeah, I think that's one of the important things to keep in mind Matt. Once you start offering cool prizes, you get a lot of people who aren't really part of the community coming in specifically to enter the photo competition while not really contributing a great deal to the rest of the forum. I've seen it happen on some of the sneaker forums I frequent.

It's not necessarily a bad thing to have more people coming in for the photo competition, as it will definitely increase forum traffic somewhat, however I do find it tends to decrease the community feel of the competitions, make it seem more separate etc. Still, you never know until you try I suppose!

[doogs]

Moving the comp to a more prominent position is a good idea, after being on the site for a few years I still have trouble remembering where the link is (but that's more likely due to the fact that I am a slow learner!). Prizes don't need to be cool, in fact daggy ones can be quite fun, some tangible Kudos for winning!! A decent one for the winner for the year and a calendar for each who are in it at the end of the year.

[Mountain Rocket]

My problem is I can easily miss any info regarding the competitions as my bookmark (and access) to this site is my Control Panel so I can access my Bookmarks.
I sure I am not alone with this but am not sure how you could easily remedy it.

[Tortoise]

For me, the short time limit is the problem. It usually takes me ages to get my act together. So on the odd occasion I've decided I have a shot maybe worth submitting, it's always been too late.

[stepbystep]

All good stuff and thanks for engaging in the discussion Matt.

Good points re community feel, and I think, just like some folk being interested in all the machinations of various gear types, bush tucker, techno gear etc, the opportunity exists to embrace those of us who are interested in learning more about wilderness photography.

It's unfortunate more existing members on the forum don't participate in either entering or voting. Seems a bit strange as I've always seen it as an encouragement for those interested in the medium, and yes, more entrants, more votes equals more possibility to monetise the activity.

[Hallu]

A PM reminding you of posting photos for the competitions (for those who want the reminder) would be nice indeed, I also missed it this month.

[Clusterpod]

Im confused about the distinction of landscape/non-landscape

[wildwalks]

I suspect the small number of voters is because it is not obvious when voting is open.
I am thinking we could have a small banner at the top of the site to announce voting has started - maybe with a few thumbnails. I have a few other issues I want to fix first - but this is pretty high on my list.

[Son of a Beach]

People can always subscribe to the RSS feed for the photo competitions forum. That way they'll get notified every time a new poll is posted and every time a result is announced.

[stepbystep]

It would just be nice if more voted whether they are interested in photography or not we all appreciate pictures of our wilderness areas and we all have a different take on it, and some encouragement for others who get involved would be wonderful. I've seen some great photos from people that never enter too.

[doogs]

It would just be nice if more voted whether they are interested in photography or not we all appreciate pictures of our wilderness areas and we all have a different take on it, and some encouragement for others who get involved would be wonderful. I've seen some great photos from people that never enter too.

Agreed.
I just had a quick comparison of views of subjects and the 'Other States' photo comp has 69 views since the 22nd and in the equipment topic 'military style bivvy bag' has 220 views since the 23rd. Now I might be wrong here but I would've thought that people would be more interested in seeing some amazing pictures from around the country than discussing a military bivvy bag *not that there's anything wrong with military bivvy bags!!

[Hallu]

It would be great to create a little software for the forum, where you have a big map of Australia/Tasmania (or even NZ) and anybody can just click on a precise location and upload the photo that goes with it. It would be great to be able to click on any location you're curious about and see what it looks like from others people's photos. Facebook offers this possibility, but it requires a real address for the location, you cannot just click on the map and upload the photo, or do it with GPS coordinates. Another interesting option would be a seasonal sorting, you could ask the software to sort out the pictures taken in winter, spring etc... It would also be useful for wildlife monitoring. Some websites have started to do that, asking contributions from bushwalkers to evaluate the biodiversity of a given place ( http://alcw.org.au/ for example). It's a big work to create such a software, but with all the places the people on this forum explore, I believe it would be worth the trouble.

[wildwalks]

precise location and upload the photo that goes with it. It would be great to be able to click on any location you're curious about and see what it looks like from others people's photos.

Cool idea Hallu
I will add it the wish list of projects. Technically it does not sounds very difficult, but it is a bit of work. We could get the software to pull GPS data from the images where it already exists. I am working on a project called emuview, that is a little similar so might be able to include in that??
Will give it some thought.

Matt

[Clusterpod]

I'm working on software that does just that for a web project, only its based in Drupal. Fun stuff!

[Hallu]

That's great, thanks. I believe most of us have GPS implemented in their camera now, although most of us don't activate because it drains the battery more quickly. But using it for what we believe will be our best shots wouldn't hurt. If you can just upload a photo onto the software, and it automatically detects the GPS location and the date, and then sort it out on the map, I think it could turn out to be very popular. A whole map showing you where bushwalkers from the forum have been is kinda cool.

[Clusterpod]

I believe most of us have GPS implemented in their camera now

I'd like implement GPS for my Nikon DSLRs but its pretty expensive.

[stepbystep]

I don't have GPS on any of my cameras and even if I did wouldn't use it, battery management on multi day walks is critical.

[Hallu]

It doesn't mean you guys can't take a photo and then note the GPS coordinates from your iphone/hand GPS, or simply enter a rough location in the software manually.

[stepbystep]

It doesn't mean you guys can't take a photo and then note the GPS coordinates from your iphone/hand GPS, or simply enter a rough location in the software manually.

Yeah rough location would have to do. I've been known to take several hundred pics on a trip

[Clusterpod]

It doesn't mean you guys can't take a photo and then note the GPS coordinates from your iphone/hand GPS, or simply enter a rough location in the software manually.

Yeah rough location would have to do. I've been known to take several hundred pics on a trip

I recently did a three day trip and took over 1800. (not that its a competition!)

But there was an awful lot to photograph. Noting down GPS co-ords would have been punishing

[Hallu]

Well in the even such a software does come out one day, we would mostly upload only our best photos, my guess is it's pretty expensive to rent such web-storage.

[frenchy_84]

Why don't you just use panoramio in Google Earth, that allows you to place photos at locations that they were taken. It is comical the locations some people place photos of Cradle from.