On-Line Photo Competitions
In my time photoblogging at Morven Photoblog, I have come across many references to various competitions such as Photo Friday and Thursday Challenge. Thus far, there has been no real driver for me to take part, particularly since my photos are generally in a weekly theme and adjusting to accommodate a specific competition on a day would not fit in with that pattern.
One could be busy posting photographs purely to feed these various challenges set by others. This might have some value in setting some boundaries and goals for photography, though I am inclined to think this would soon become a treadmill and lack enjoyment for me.
It would be interesting to hear if people have taken part in such competitions, what the experience was like and whether you considered it worthwhile enough to reccommend to others.
September 19th, 2005 at 6:16 am
Excellent subject, Ian.
I *used* to be on the challenge treadmill. Then pretty much said “screw it.” I have almost 4 months of photos on my site now, so if my photos don’t fit into any of the themes, I just don’t enter the challenge. I still play the game though, just not like I did in the past. I did not used to autopost, but now do for 7-10 days in advance and update / adjust if needed - I could never go back to being a slave to those challenges.
What I wonder though, is who has time to go back to those places and VOTE?? I certainly don’t and rarely do. I sort of wonder how fair it is?
September 19th, 2005 at 8:27 am
never joined before…
because has not reach the standard yet
hahahahahha
so my photo are primarily for my fellow blog friends, visitors and personal appreciation…
not sure if qualify to be in competition or not
September 19th, 2005 at 7:12 pm
I feel such challenges are fun though i have submitted only twice so far. But was a good learning experience for me. In one of the times i worked on the theme but never got to submitt it. But i felt the same way like Jamie about voting, dont find the time u go though the entire list and vote, so kinda becomes unfair.
September 20th, 2005 at 9:13 pm
I have never tried it to date - though the idea of having a challenge set could easily be a spur to my creativity - perhaps I will do a week of challenges at some point when I have some time to spare - not with older images, but newly taken ones with the express purpose of reflecting the theme.
jamie - I tend to batch up my posts for the whole week now, though that is more of a practical thing because I have always decided what I was going to post prior to the start of the week - normally I have a couple of spares handy to be able to respond to any positive or adverse comment. The real problem is which ones to leave out - my balloon series is a case in point - I took 400+ images and some of them were quite good - at least I had more than seven that were original or worthy of displaying in some way. Often the ones I consider ‘best’ do not get posted at all!
Zbjernak - certainly I found that my photography improved after I began posting to the internet - photo.net can be quite a hard testing ground. For me sometimes people seem to think the strangest pictures are wonderful and that really good ones are bad - this shows that there is a wide range of tastes out there.
Kal - DId you get useful feedback from the excercise?
September 21st, 2005 at 3:21 pm
I used to be an active participant in Photo Friday — I would careful think out each theme and then go find my shot. Once I had it I would post and link to the site, and watch my traffic double very quickly. I did it for a couple of reasons: I found each challlenge to be fairly stimulating creatively, and I also noticed a large uptick in traffic to my site (my old one, now defunct). It was fun, but for me the charm wore off fairly quickly. This was about a year and a half ago — Photo Friday is not the same any more.
First of all I have found it to be far too popular now — it’s a bit ridiculous to see over 400 entries for each theme on the third day. How can one possibly expect anyone to see and judge your entry for a “noteworthy” when there are 700 entries to trudge through — an impossible task.
There are some other reasons why I’m no longer enamored with theme sites, but I do agree with one thing — Photo Friday was a brilliant idea that is just become too popular for its own good. For me the best way to find creativity is to just get out there and shoot.
September 21st, 2005 at 4:52 pm
I think photography is not a matter of competition.
September 23rd, 2005 at 6:40 pm
Labbai - I agree that it is or need not be a competition per se, but rather for me participating in them would be more of a challenge to my creatvity to obtain an image to portray a theme or idea chosen by anothe person. I have not yet participated, bt may do some time in the future.
Anand - it does sound like these competitions are more like a chore than fun though!