Tas Photos in Aus competition & Photo Competition Ideas

[photohiker]

I'm curious why Tassie shots are turning up in the Aussie competition instead of the Tassie comp? (not that it isn't part of Aus, mind)

Michael

[stu]

Even more curious is the entry from New Zealand???
A great shot, but TTBOMK not a state of Australia?

[eggs]

Well there are 3 things happening at the moment.
1. All these comments are keeping this item near the top of the recent comments pile. [Someone should comment on the Tas competition thread ]

2. The comments have been used to indicate which photo was undeservedly in the lead. This means that people who have not voted could be swayed in their voting by such information/comments.
I know from several experiences that photos can get top votes without looking all that good to me. That is the nature of personal taste and inclination at the time of voting.
The way this competition works is very good - as each photo gets an even amount of time for voting on - and the result is secret until you vote.
I believe the rules state there is to be no lobbying for votes either. So I am a little concerned when some lobbying - either positive or negative - enters the comments.

3. Photos from Tas are starting to swamp the Aus competition. I don't have problems from other non-Tas photos being entered (eg NZ) - as this is the only place for such entries.
And I understand that the competition was intentionally widened to include Tas to allow more entries.[This month has 4 non-Tas entries]
But I do note a couple things - firstly the only competition that is "published" is the Tassie calendar - and this is how it should be - so there is a 'premium' monthly competition.
The entries for Aus allow the other non-Tas users to keep their cameras in regular use and I am sure I am not the only one who looks forward to the Aus monthly - so thankyou Nik.

But given that I pack a lot of Tas walking into typically one month means I only get 1 or 2 bites at the premium cherry - even though I may have covered a variety of locations (3 this year).
Comparing the 2 series of photos for this month reveals that Tas walkers are using both competitions to generate 2 entries for their walking.
I should probably be happy with this as life is never fair, but maybe others have an opinion?

[ILUVSWTAS]

I usually find it hard to pick just one pic, so im glad I can enter 2 in each month.
Now it is a national walking site, I think it's fine that pics from Tas are entered in the Australia wide one! as much as many people dont think so Tasmania IS a part of Australia. We cant help it if our state has more stunning scenery

I do however agree that sometimes comments may sway people into voting for a particular pic!!

[johnw]

But given that I pack a lot of Tas walking into typically one month means I only get 1 or 2 bites at the premium cherry - even though I may have covered a variety of locations (3 this year).
Comparing the 2 series of photos for this month reveals that Tas walkers are using both competitions to generate 2 entries for their walking.
I should probably be happy with this as life is never fair, but maybe others have an opinion?

I have the same difficulty eggs. For example visited many Tassie locations last August and on previous trips but can only enter one photo.

I usually find it hard to pick just one pic, so im glad I can enter 2 in each month.
Now it is a national walking site, I think it's fine that pics from Tas are entered in the Australia wide one! as much as many people dont think so Tasmania IS a part of Australia. We cant help it if our state has more stunning scenery

Agree with all of that ILUVSWTAS (I still have trouble convincing some people that Tasmania is not an overseas trip ). But maybe pics from other locations should be eligible for the Tas competition so that we all get a chance to enter 2 shots . Either that or combine the 2 comps and everyone gets 2 entries from any location .

[photohiker]

Agree with your thoughts eggs (regarding swaying people's vote) but don't forget you can change your vote - those easily swayed types are just as likely to change their ideas after as before...

Michael

[Son of a Beach]

All good valid comments. My responses to some of the comments...

• I see no reason why we cannot have an Australia calendar next year, if there is a demand for it (next year will be the first year in which we've had enough Australia competitions to build a calendar from).
• I hadn't thought of the Tasmania competition as a 'premium' competition, but it does sound good.
• Having people commenting that one particular photo is underserving relative to the others is perhaps unfair while the voting is still open. Such comments should really be left until the poll has closed. With this in mind, I've deleted that comment, and two of the follow ups related to it (although it's perhaps a bit late for this now).
• The Australia competition rules state that photos can be from either Australia or New Zealand.
• Tasmanian photos are welcome in the Australia competition (being part of Australia), so long as the same (or VERY similar) photo is not also in the Tasmanian competition. If Tasmanian photos end up dominating (which I do not expect) frequently, then this will be reviewed, as it would be unbalanced to have them dominating both competitions. With this in mind, Tasmanian photographers may like to consider entering only occasional exceptional Tasmanian photographs into the Australian competition, to avoid losing access to it (which I think is unlikely, but better safe than sorry).

Thanks for the feedback. Comments are always welcome.

[eggs]

I did not know you could change your vote?
It appears to remember you have voted and does not return to the voting form - just the results.
I think that is the best way for it to work - to avoid any real manipulation.

[Son of a Beach]

No you cannot change your vote unless the person creating the poll specifically allows it. The 'autobot' does not allow it.

[tasadam]

Initially, Tasmanian images were OK for the Australia comp because numbers were low, I even entered images myself in the past to make up the numbers. I always stated that the image was from Tasmania in its description, and when it comes to voting for the Australia comp, I will vote for an image from the big island.
If numbers of images from the rest of Australia continue to remain high, say at least 5, then perhaps there is just cause for omitting Tasmanian photographs from the Australia comp. And as the site is attracting more and more walkers from the big island, perhaps we could consider that when we start to consistently get 3 or 4 images from a particular state, we could start a comp for that state, so we might have comps for, say,

• Tasmania
• Victoria
• NSW
• Rest of Australia / NZ

And add competitions as we start to consistently get more than a designated number of bushwalking photos from each state.

What do you reckon?

[eggs]

Probably a little premature to split into states.

I had a quick scan of the winners list and it is "the usual suspects".
ie the same small band of merry camera swingers do the rounds each month - with the occassional fresh face.

I think Nik's suggestion that Tas entries in the Aus competition should be the odd entry to make up numbers matches the original intention.
To this end - perhaps we need some form of counter that tells us how many entries there are?
I also added a Tas photo in an early post to make up numbers when I had been all month in Tas at the time - but it was quite different in area to my Tas competition entry.
If this spirit were followed, it would be a shame if they did not acrue votes simply because they were from Tas - but I must admit that my eye was more on the non-Tas entries this month.

[ILUVSWTAS]

I had a quick scan of the winners list and it is "the usual suspects".
ie the same small band of merry camera swingers do the rounds each month - with the occassional fresh face.

Yeh this is usually the case and somewhat a bit sad for hackers like myself, I did once suggest that one single person should only be able to win the monthly comp maybe twice per year.???

[tasadam]

So while we're discussing it, perhaps a drop-down box for the state, then upload your photo... And you can enter photos from as many states as you have been walking in that given month, but only one photo per state per month. And the software can be setup to split the entries up into state based competitions as the numbers permit, and put them all together in a "Australia" comp as happens now if there are not enough entries for each state. And if for example you enter a photo for QLD, NSW & VIC, but only VIC has enough photos for a comp on its own, then only one of your QLD / NSW photos will be entered into the "Rest of Australia" comp, that being the first of those two photos uploaded, so when you upload you should start with your best / favourite photo in case that happens... Surely all this can be automated with the right software tweaking and a description of how to enter explaining the process.
Could be a bit premature, but worth forward planning for as the forum grows.

[tasadam]

Yeh this is usually the case and somewhat a bit sad for hackers like myself, I did once suggest that one single person should only be able to win the monthly comp maybe twice per year.???

Aw c'mon... With 4 in 2008 and 5 (so far) in 2009 that would remove my incentive to improve... (ok maybe I felt like a bit of self boasting)

[ILUVSWTAS]

Yeh this is usually the case and somewhat a bit sad for hackers like myself, I did once suggest that one single person should only be able to win the monthly comp maybe twice per year.???

Aw c'mon... With 4 in 2008 and 5 (so far) in 2009 that would remove my incentive to improve...

Hahaha I rest my case.......

[tasadam]

T'is anonymous voting, remember... You just gotta go to more exciting photo type places eh!

[ILUVSWTAS]

Haha, Hmmm now where is more scenic than the Arthurs.............

[samh]

We could also just have one competition for all of Australia

[tasadam]

We could also just have one competition for all of Australia

Tassie came first, with the sites origins of Bushwalk Tasmania. There was a photo comp. Then the forum grew in popularity on the mainland, so came the justification for a comp for them as well. Now with the advent of the new domain name http://www.bushwalk.com, and the state-specific forums, more and more it will be a "national" site.
But as Tassie comp came first, and the largest single state's membership is in Tassie, there is likely to always be a Tassie comp.
Besides, with the best walking in Tassie, a photo comp including other areas in Tasmania seems hardly fair on them

[samh]

I agree with you Adam, but before we have a competition for Australia (excluding Tasmania) I would prefer to have only one competition for all. Or we could change at least the name of the Australia competition o make it obvious that it's mainland only.
Your idea of having a comp. for each state is good too. We could then even take the first 1,2,or 3 to make an overall comp for all of Australia. Probably it would also be good to disable comments for the time the poll is active.
I also think that, if there is an increasing interest (traffic) in the gallery forum and the photo comp. it would be nice to have "gallery" with pictures only. I'm not sure how this could be done and I don't want to create more work for SOB and TasAdam who are doing a great job already anyway. It's just a thought

[tasadam]

Probably it would also be good to disable comments for the time the poll is active.

I can see merit in that, or perhaps as Nik suggested, encouraging people not to discuss photos until after the voting is closed.
Although, anyone can see the poll in its current state now by signing out then viewing the voting topics.

...be nice to have "gallery" with pictures only.

Do you mean like a slideshow gallery or something? Like it takes photos that it finds from the forum and creates a slideshow? Or shows a slideshow from a particular comp or topic? I don't know exactly what you mean here.

[samh]

Like it takes photos that it finds from the forum and creates a slideshow?

Yep, Something like that. Also depends if others are interested or have better ideas

[Son of a Beach]

I had a quick scan of the winners list and it is "the usual suspects".
ie the same small band of merry camera swingers do the rounds each month - with the occassional fresh face.

Yeh this is usually the case and somewhat a bit sad for hackers like myself, I did once suggest that one single person should only be able to win the monthly comp maybe twice per year.???

I have suggested something similar a few times, but I usually get a lot of people (who are not the regular winners) saying that I shouldn't interfere with the natural process of the competitions as they are. So I'm definitely still open to introducing a rule that would limit the number of times a person can win per year. In the past I've considered options such as the winner of a monthly competition is ineligible for entry into the next months, and other such variations on the theme.

[ILUVSWTAS]

How about a point system?? Like giving 3 pictures a one two or three vote and the picture with the highest score at the end wins?? It's sometimes VERY hard to choose just one picture??

[Son of a Beach]

How about a point system?? Like giving 3 pictures a one two or three vote and the picture with the highest score at the end wins?? It's sometimes VERY hard to choose just one picture??

I like this idea, but the forum software doesn't allow weighted voting. It will allow a poll to be created where people can vote for up to a specified number of options, but all options are tallied equally.

[WarrenH]

Happy Australia Day!!! Tasmanians.

I think that the status quo is very good. If one is lucky enough to be able to submit two entries because they live outside Australia ... that is even better.

I can't see why Australians shouldn't visit Tasmania ... but not being a Tasmanian, I cant possibly say if Tasmanians want Australians visiting and then winning their competition.

I don't like dumb-down contests where "every child wins a prise." May the best photo win, even if several wins per year go to the same person, hey ILUVSWTAS? If that isn't incentive to improve one's image making, for monthly competitions and displaying on the Forum, by knocking ILUVSWTAS off some high peak, what is?

May the light be with you ... and do not rest on having nice locations alone for image making Tasmanians. "Thare b' secret places in Orstralia," that not even Australians know about, that could be slipped into any Tasmanian contest ... (maybe).

Warren.

PS, I'm from the ACT ... I'm not from the "Rest of Australia". Good Heavens, having the Capital Territory being lumped with the rest!!! What is this world coming to TASADAM? The rest of Australia!!! are places like Queensland or any state that rhymes with "Rest."

[ILUVSWTAS]

Geez I wish I could accept that compliment. I've only won one monthly competition though

[WarrenH]

ILUVSWTAS, It is the TAS in every second person's name down there that has caused my confusion. I did mean TASADAM.

Visiting 'Bushwalking Tasmania' is as confusing as being on a US hillbilly gun site looking at names like Billy, Billy-Bob, Jim-Bob, Bobby-Joe, ... Joe-Bob.

Please excuse my lack of attention to detail.

Warren.

[ILUVSWTAS]

No problem! Agreed he needs a bit of competition occasionally.

[Taurë-rana]

Are the photos put in the competition "straight off the camera", maybe with some cropping, or is the colour, contrast etc improved by the photographer before entering? If that is the case, it would make it hard for anyone who hasn't got the time or the knowledge to fix up their photos to produce something as good as those with the time and/or knowledge.