Enter our monthly contests

This is far more access than Boston.com needs. Editing, uploading, access to 'private' areas. You must be joking!!

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By authorizing this link, you'll allow the Boston.com photo contest service to provide:

* Access to your photostream (including private stuff)
* Editing of your photo or video information via Boston.com photo contest
* Uploads to your Flickr account via Boston.com photo contest
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From the RAW Staff:

You know, Charles, I was as surprised as you when I saw your comment and read these! So I asked our software developer what was going on, and it turns out these are Flickr's rules for using its application interface, not ours. We can't change the language; it's Flickr's. They simply grab the name of our feature -- Boston.com photo contest -- and automatically insert it into these rules.

But let me assure you -- we do NOT have access to any photos or albums you have marked as private, we are NOT editing anybody's photos (as stated in our contest rules), and we are NOT uploading anything to anybody's Flickr accounts.

Here's what we will do:
> When you add 3 tags to the photo you want to enter into the contest (Boston.com, contest, August), it allows us to see all the contest entries.
> When the contest is over on the last day of the month, voting will start on the 1st of the next month and last 7 days.
> We will display all the photo entries as thumbnails on a big page. They will get bigger when you cursor over them or click on them so that voters can decide which photos they like best.
> At the top of that page, there will be 3 boxes marked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. When you find the 3 photos you like best, you'll click and drag them into those boxes, hit Submit, and your vote will be tallied with everybody else's.
> On or around the 10th of every month, we'll announce the winners on the RAW site, and also send an email to the winners via their Flickr accounts.

I hope that clarifies things. Please write if you have any other questions to raw@boston.com.

I think this is wonderful, it gives amateurs a chance to display their talents without a professional taking the spotlight. I entered this contest about 5 minutes ago, and I hope the photo gets some recognition, cause I thought it was pretty darn good. :) Thanks for the opportunity RAW staff!

-Patti

I am not the biggest fan of putting my photos out there that I worked hard to take for fear of someone saving it / keeping it / passing it off as their own. I am hoping to sell my photographs as well so in essence I'm losing money by publishing them up for the contest. Is there any solution for photographers such as myself that you all propose? I would love to enter the contest but just don't want my photos out there free for the taking.

Thanks so much

From the RAW staff:
Hi, Drew ... First, you don't have to be concerned about somebody grabbing your photo and reproducing it in print; we run all photos at 72 dpi -- the resolution of most computer monitors -- and that just doesn't translate into a good enough quality for print.

If you're concerned about somebody grabbing your photo and passing it off as their own on their website, then we say in the rules that you can add a small digital watermark to the photo as long as it is small, doesn't interfere with the image, and doesn't contain your full name (which could bias the voting). You can find instructions on how to do so on Photoshop's Help page.

Glad to see you are using flickr for this contest. I also like the rules of ownership. Nice job.

I'd like to see each entry, that gets highlighted at The Raw Blog, get a link back to it's page on flickr, so people can comment over there, and see the licensing.

Ed. Note: Good idea, Steve ... this is a one-person operation right now, and I'll see if I have time to add all those links ... we have 128 entries so far! But again, good suggestion.

If you're unable to add a digital watermark,. one tip I always use and generally recommend for those afraid of someone stealing your work. is to upload a cropped version of your photo.

First, I feel cropping a photo is always a good step to take mainly because it allows you to eliminate things that distract from the subject and it also allows you to enlarge the main subject.

But now, once you've cropped the photo, only you know what was cropped out of the picture and you now have the original. This is the best proof of ownership there is.

This was a nice gift after a violent thunderstorm at Salisbury Beach.

I have submitted a pic for the August contest.

"We will display all the photo entries as thumbnails on a big page."

On the Raw Blog or on Flickr?

From the RAW Staff: Hi, Alyssa .... it will be on the RAW blog, but pulled in from Flickr using its API. You'll be able to cursor over the thumbnails to get a larger view, and click on each one to get a 600-pixel hi-res view. As you find photos you like, you'll click and drag them into boxes at the top marked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. You can change your mind and remove them by clicking the X on each photo and subbing in others. When you're done, you hit Submit and your vote will be recorded.

In reference to Steve Garfield's note: In my opinion (and it's just that) - I wouldn't want my flickr page linked to my contest picture. Granted, people can go over to flickr and search for me using the contest rules, but I would still think it wise to keep it as un-biased as possible during the 'before' part of the contest. Does that make sense?

Why was my image "the destruction of a beautiful day" removed from the page????
I am very upset about this

Um, not sure what you're talking about, Patrick ... it's right here:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/08/the_destruction_of_a_beautiful.html

The homepage probably has gotten so long that many entries aren't on the top-level page anymore, but you can find all the entries by using this link, which displays only the entries in the category "monthly contest" and which I've provided in several entries:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/monthly_contest/

Hope that helps.

Does any know the link for the monthly topic?

Hi, Andrew -- the explanation of the September contest, with the theme "My Neighborhood", is right here:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/09/september_contest_thememy_neig.html

Thank You, Teresa.

I would like to set up a Flicker Account but for the life of me I cannot find where this is done. There is an awful lot of text and I have tried. Give me a clue please.

So how and when can we see the pictures that have been entered in this contest? Do you have any links for us to follow? Thanks

You are looking for close ups then? Please clarify...
D. Tee

Hi, D. Tee -- I hope the explanation at the link below will clarify. In general, though, yes, we're looking for close-ups ... photos that show subjects from close-in angles you don't usually see. Check out the longer explanation here:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2008/10/get_close_in_october.html

Your instructions say that starting on the 5th of the month "you'll all vote" for the winners of a monthly contest. Does this mean that only RAW submitters can vote? In any case, I can't find how to vote - can you please point me in the right direction? (Probably it's in front of me but there's so much stuff on every page that I don't see it.) Thanks.

Nice site.

How do we locate the current month's entries?
Thanks

What happens next year when the tags for the month of the contest overlap?

Hi, Mary -- you can find the current month's entries by going to your Flickr page and in the upper right corner, click on the arrow beside "Search" -- on the dropdown menu, click "Everyone's Uploads". In the empty box beside "Everyone's Uploads", fill in the tags for whatever contest you want to search, e.g. Boston.com, contest, November. Under that box, check the "Tags Only" button, then hit search.

Or you can just use this link:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boston.com+contest+november&m=tags

And Lee -- good question. I hope by that time we will have more than one contest per month, with different themes, so the tags will have to include a theme name as well as the month.

It's November 21, 2008, and I have not figured out how to vote in the October contest! Is it me?

I've done everything you told me to on Flickr - set photo as safe, added 5 photos, did the correct tags on the one for the contest. My photo does NOT show up on the search! What gives? I don't expect to make it into voting, but I would at least like to do it right!

Kathleen, usually when photos don't show up in Flickr's search, it's either because your account is too new for Flickr's search to have found your photos yet, or you have some settings that are preventing it.

Here are a few things you should check:

> Go to the Privacy and Permissions tab on Your Account page:
http://www.flickr.com/account/?tab=privacy

> At the top, make sure Flickr has deemed your account "safe". If not, contact them about why it's not.

> Next, under "Global settings", make sure that your settings allow access to everyone. For example, make sure everyone can download your stuff, etc.

Where it says "Hide your stuff from public searches" -- click on Edit over to the right and make sure to UNCHECK the two boxes at the top that say:

Hide your photostream from site-wide searches on flickr.com?
Hide your photostream from searches on 3rd party sites that use the API?

If the first box is checked, we won't be able to find your photo, and if the second box is checked, we won't be able to pull your photo into our Voting Machine.

> Check the settings under "Defaults for new uploads" as well.

Hopefully this will work. Let me know.

Am I missing the point of the theme this month or are many of these photos not relevant to the theme? Maybe I'm just a purist. And what about the several examples of multiple entries by the same person, are they eliminated automatically? Maybe I'm just not in the right spirit from too much shoveling.... so ho ho ho, on the good side, there are many interesting entries and it's always great to look them over.
2now2

Hey, 2now2 -- I think 'Tis the Season is a bit of a challenging theme, although it is also vague enough that many subjects qualify: Weather and holidays, for example. You're right; there are some photos that don't fit. Honestly, there are every month, and we just leave them out of the voting.

Same with multiple submissions by the same person: They don't make it into the contest. When we populate the Voting Machine, we exclude those photos.

The contest rules do not state New England residency. I live in upstate New York and grew up in Boston. I actually consider this part of the state to be part of New England. May we enter?

Oh, Mike, I can't tell you how delicious it is to hear a New York resident say he considers his section of that state to be part of New England ... but my smugness aside, to answer your question: Anybody who lives anywhere can enter the monthly contests. We've had entrants from South America, and an ex-New Englander who now lives in Coral Gables, Florida, placed third in the August contest.

We wouldn't use a non-New Englander as a Photographer of the Week, but the contests are open to all -- especially expatriates like yourself stuck in such unfortunate circumstances.

Hello,

Where will I be able to see if my photo was uploaded for the contest. I am not sure if I did it correctly.

Thank you.

Hi, Jesse -- just search the contest tags on Flickr -- go to Flickr's Search page, type in the three tags (Boston.com contest January) and make sure you click "Tags Only" under the search box.

maybe I'm just bleary-eyed from being on the computer all day, but nowhere (here or on Flickr) do I see the size that the photo should be when uploading.......

Hi, Joan - you can upload full-size right out of the camera without resizing if you want ... however, if you have a free account on Flickr, you're limited to 10MB per photo, and 100MB a month (a Pro account is unlimited). So you may want to size your photos down to 1024 pixels wide -- the maximum size that Flickr displays.

You also could reduce the resolution to 72 dpi, which is the maximum screen resolution of PC monitors, so anything higher than that is wasted. Just make sure to always keep your originals on your own computer at their original size for printing.

If you want to know more about uploading and sizes, Flickr has an FAQ here:
http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/

Hope this helps.

I seem to be having trouble getting my photo to show using the contest tags. If I search my photostream with the tags my photo shows but when I change to everyone's uploads it isn't there. Help?

Hi, Stonehill ... I just checked your account, and it looks new, with the first photos having been uploaded just 3 days ago -- Feb. 17. It can take Flickr's Search a couple of weeks to find new accounts and add the photos in that account to its Search. We don't start judging the contest until 4-5 days into the next month, so you have time for your photos to show up.

Hmmm, in the old days one could upload a pic directly to the Globe. Not have to sign up with a third party outlet such as Flckr. Personally, I'd prefer it the old way. I don't necessarily want to have to signup on Flickr to join this contest. But, I may. Unfortunately, it takes Flickr quite some time to get an account up and running so I probably won't make the deadline for this submission. Also, is a tag with my name ok? Or should I drop that?

Yes, Rick, we'll be getting a new photo upload tool soon, perhaps in April. That way you can keep your photos for this contest in albums on Boston.com. You'll still have to tag them so we can find them, but you won't have to maintain an account with Flickr.

And yes, a tag with your name is fine ... you can put any tags you want on your photo, just as long as the 3 contest tags are there.

Hi - When does all the voting start? Thanks.

Hi, Libby ... well, Stan Grossfeld is narrowing the field to 50 next Friday, the 6th; it will take us awhile to get the Voting Machine ready, but we'll try to get it posted by the following Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

Is there a contest theme for March?

Hi Teresa,

Thanks for all the work you put into this, I know it must be a ton. I was just curious about the March and April themes, Over on the voting page Nighttime is the Right time for March and April Showers for April are in the lead. Do you think it is safe to start looking for photos using those themes?

Thanks again,

Where is the voting page?
When is the March theme finalized?

Hey, Michael -- yes, the March theme is "Nighttime is the right time". I'll post that tonight or tomorrow.
Voting for February starts early next week. Stan Grossfeld is narrowing the choices to 50 Friday evening, so we'll spend Monday readying the Voting Machine.

Teresa, just want to say that this is a much improved way of uploading content for the contests. Thanks to you and the developer for hearing our many and vociferous complaints and doing something about them. Truly commendable in this day and age. Good work.

Why Flickr when there are so many different photo sharing sites? As people have mentioned, Flickr/Yahoo is pretty heavy handed when it comes to terms and conditions. I have some great photos to share. They are already online via my pbase account, but I won't use Flickr.

Before suggesting people change photos to "72 dpi", please give this a thorough read: http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html

Hi, John -- we use Flickr because its API is very easy to use, and that's how we populate our Voting Machine.

Eric: The reason we lower the dpi of photos is to reduce their weight; changing a 1024-pixel photo from 300 dpi to 72 dpi can reduce the weight from 400 kb to 200. When we're building Flash galleries of 50 photos, every kb matters for load time. Displaying photos at 72 dpi doesn't matter when viewing them on PC screens, since that's the screen resolution of the PC.

I hope this clarifies why we post at 72 dpi.

Please read the DPI article: http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html

It's really a good read, especially if you're making any sort of requests referring to DPI.

A 1000x1000 image saved as "72 DPI" has the equal file size as the same 1000x1000 image saved at "300 DPI". Either way, it's 1 000 000 pixels.

I'm just trying to help people not mess up their images. Some older programs will shrink the image (meaning reduce the actual number of pixels).

If your image editing software is reducing the file size when changing from "300 DPI" to "72 DPI", then it's probably re-compressing the image. I assure you that DPI does not affect file size.

I have been unable to post my photo on flickr for the March photo contest. It looks as if others have been having the same problem when i read comments on flickr. I have entered photos in previous photo contests without any problems.

I would like to enter my photo in the March contest, however, I am concerned since the deadline is today. Is there another way that I could enter my photo in this contest? Thanks.

So what happens when RAW rolls over after a year? Should you start including the year in your required tags? :-)

Are the April 2009 galleries posted somewhere? I can't find them.

They're coming tomorrow, LL!

thanks !! very helpful post!

I've read and re-read the instructions for entering the contests, but still can't seem to get it working properly. I have the tags "Boston.com", "May", and "contest" in my photos, but when I use the search engine I can't find it. My account was opened on May 12th so it's been a few weeks. I've double checked the various privacy settings and everything seems to be in order. Any thoughts?

I added my photo faded tulip to the May contest and it says that it is there, but I can not see it on the web site! :(

Hi Tony and Dobritte ... each of you please send a link to your photo's page on Flickr to me at hanafin@boston.com and I'll check it out for you.

Do you have themes for July and August yet?

how long does it take for your photo to show up after i posted and tagged it?

Teresa, you are much more patient with people's questions than I would ever be. ;)

Newbie here. I created my Flickr account, added a few photos and tagged one for the July photo contest but it's not showing up in the RAW gallery navigated to via Boston.com. is there anything else I need to do or does simply tagging one photo with the correct tags include it in the gallery? Please help - time is running out for the July contest! Thanks.

Hi Jeffrey, Photos aren't added automatically to the RAW gallery on Boston.com (though that would be nice!). We build that manually based on the results of a Flickr search for this month's entries. I'll check this afternoon to see if there are more photos to add. Here's the link for the July contest: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boston.com+contest+july2009+ripples&m=tags

FYI - It can take Flickr up to two weeks to add new accounts to its Search. Also, you can check out comment #27 (above) for some tips on making sure your account settings will allow your photo to be indexed in Flickr's search.

Hope this helps!

Hi,
How and when does voting actually take place ?

What a shame. This site appears to be running as Teresa"s little fifedom.

Teresa, as best as I can tell a senior person running this site...is very duplicitous in her approach, frequently filtering out comments that are critical to the way they run their site, the contests, the photographer of the week, etc. Several people including myself have posted dissenting comments, recently on the photos posted by the photographer of the week, which were never posted. And at other times regarding the monthly contests which have never seen the light of day.

If you can't run this site with integrity, don't do it all all.

HA! Queen Teresa here ... of course this is my domain, Jim ... it's my responsibility. And my philosophy is that RAW is going to be a supportive, generous site that posts praise as well as constructive criticism so that we all can improve. Just look at the thoughtful critiques submitted -- and published -- by RAW regular fairnsquare. That's constructive criticism that's helpful, as are many other comments we've published.

Sorry, but I'm just not going to post comments that insult our judges or photographers or make baseless accusations. It's the way I've run RAW for more than a year, and it's the way I'm going to continue to run it. If you want a photo site that allows nasty or unhelpful comments that serve no purpose other than to trash a judge's or photographer's reputation, I'm afraid you're going to have to go elsewhere.

I just signed up with Flickr and submitted 5 photos and have no idea what to do next. Do they just get reviewed from here or do I have to do more to enter the August contest? Maybe it is just me, but it seems confusing.

Sorry, gr8dns, if my instructions aren't clear enough. I'll revisit them and add some language to make things clearer.

Uploading your 5 photos was the correct first step; that will allow your site to be found by Flickr's Search. The next step is to add the 4 contest tags to just one of those photos. Those tags, all separate tags, are boston.com, contest, august2009, and architecture. Capitalization doesn't matter.

We use those tags to search for all the photos entered in the contest. In fact, here's a link to the Search results page for the August contest:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boston.com+contest+august2009+architecture&m=tags&z=e

You'll notice the tags are listed in the Search box at the top.

One caveat: Sometimes it can take Flickr several days or even two weeks to find new accounts, so it's possible that you won't make the August contest. But we have contests every month, so there's always September.

We then take those photos that are tagged and entered in the contest and we build full-page galleries to display them in all their glory. We've already started building the August galleries, and will finish when the contest ends at midnight Monday:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/august_contest_entries/

The next step is that a volunteer professional judge -- sometimes a member of the Globe Photo Staff, sometimes an outside expert -- narrows the field to the Final 50. We then post a Voting Machine containing those 50 finalists and let the public vote for several days. (The Voting Machine automatically pulls in the photos directly from Flickr.)

Finally, the judge returns, looks over the voting results, and makes the final choices of the Top 10, including First, Second, and Third Place, using her or his own best judgment as a pro, but also taking the voting results into consideration.

Then we post the Top 10 winners.

Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.

How do I know that you've found my picture on Flickr?

Hi, Kathy ... we find the contest entries on Flickr by doing a search on the contest tags we've assigned each month. You can do the same thing. Just go to Flickr's Search page:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&w=all

Type in the 4 contest tags, click on "Tags Only", then click the Search button.

For the October contest, that will yield this page (note the tags in the search box at the top and that the "Tags Only" link is clicked):

http://www.flickr.com/search/?z=e&w=all&q=boston.com+contest+october2009+pink&m=tags

I followed all the instructions to the tee and my picture is not shown when you search for the tags...why is that?

Kathy, email a link to your Flickr photo to raw@boston.com and I'll take a look.

How do you know when the top fifty are chosen?

When are they going to let us know who won the October Contest ("Pink")?

Your "Monthly Contest Rules" need to be amended to reflect the recent voting changes that are now in effect. Don't want to misinform new members joining in on the RAW action.

I also noted that your flickr RAW group forum has not been keeping up with the latest updates you post here. If you are hoping to keep your flick group active and vibrant, then you might want to keep information fresh in that forum as well. More interaction by admins and moderators help to keep a forum "active" and fun!

Good points, Warner -- I'll change the language on the rules and update the Flickr Group. Thanks

I'm starting to get very frustrated with this site. First I submitted some photos for a critique. Although I didn't expect to be selected, I would like to have known that the photos were received. Then, on Dec. 31, I followed the instructions for entering a photo in the Toy contest. It doesn't show up.

Then, in today's Globe on p. 2 of the "G" section, there's a full page invite to "Share a photo, Share your story" from the national parks. Having just visited 3 of the parks, I went through my photos and selected some to submit. When I got on to this site, I discovered that the final date for submission was this past Sept.! What's the story????

Oh, Sheila, I'm sorry you're running into these issues ... let me try to help.

1) I haven't been able to respond to every request for a Globe critique because of the volume of requests for both critiques and Photographer of the Week nominations. I also get dozens of queries about the contests, and I make those emails the priority since there's a deadline attached to those.

I did plan to set aside a couple of days in January to write to photographers who submitted critique requests more than 6 months ago to ask if they wanted to update their photo portfolio. Perhaps I can try to take another day to send acknowledgment emails to everyone who has requested a critique or nominated a POTW.

BTW, we did receive your critique request -- nice shots!

2) Search the contest tags in Flickr to see if your photo is there:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?z=e&w=all&q=boston.com+contest+december2009+toys&m=tags

If it's not, then send me a link to your Flickr photo page to raw@boston.com and I'll check it out.

BTW, don't worry if your photo isn't in our full-screen galleries yet; we do those manually and have to catch up from the long weekend.

3) That in-house ad for the National Parks contest (which was run by our Travel section, not RAW) clearly was a big mistake. Somebody in the department that places those ads in the paper clearly did not know that the contest ended awhile ago. I've sent a note to make sure it's not used again.

Do you have to live in Boston to submit photos to the contest? My photos were taken last July on our family vacation.

No, Judith, you don't have to live in Boston or even New England to enter RAW's monthly contests. We use the residency requirement just for the Globe Critiques and Photographers of the Week. So enter!

I just can't get my photo to show up when I tag it. I have set everything to public and have made sure I tagged it correctly. What should I do?

Hi Kiley -- send me a link to your Flickr photo page at raw@boston.com and I'll see if I can spot something.

I got it fixed. But thanks anyway!

I have an awesome timely photo to submit, but I'm not the kind of athlete to jump those yahoo hurdles. It's probably the only photo I would ever publish. I have only had a few such in my 35 years of photography that I consider worthy.

Would very much like to do this locally. I will wait one day for advice before posting elsewhere.

Sorry and sad.

- Bob

Hi Bob - Don't be sorry. And don't be sad. Here's my biased advice: Step over the hurdle. You don't even have to jump because it's a pretty low hurdle. And once you've done that, you'll have the joy of easily entering all future RAW contests and seeing what your fellow photographers are doing on Flickr.

I've read all this, and I'm still not clear on where/how to submit an image. Is simply adding the appropriate tags enough?

Sorry it's not clear, Ken; but you're right -- all you have to do is add the contest tags to the photo you want to enter in the contest and bingo -- it's entered. We search for those tags to find all the contest entries.

Teresa, maybe making groups on Flickr would help with some of these issues?

Are we allowed to upload film photographs that were scanned onto the computer? I do have a DSLR, but would also like to try with my film SLR.

Sure, Rene -- film is absolutely accepted in these contests.

I appreciate your writing style. You know how to catch my attention.

Always delighted to find useful articles. Best!

I have not been here for some time and am having trouble submitting my photo. I followed the link, selected the pix, did all of the naming of it and myself, but the submit button is not functioning. I must be missing something, but all of the boxes are filled in.

Hi Don,

I saw your comment about having trouble with the contest entry. Once you browse and add a photo, the Submit button should turn dark blue.

Could you try closing your browser and opening it again and returning to that page?

Here it is:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2010/12/monthly_contest/december_photo_names_gallery/

Let me know how you make out.

Teresa

Thanks for the help. I actually had to use a different browser. It seems that you don't like Google Chrome. I went back and re-submitted using Firefox and all is well.
Don

I submitted my photo a couple of days ago and didn't see it in the gallery today (though I see other images submitted with later dates) I re-submitted it today. I'm hoping I didn't submit it twice.

Passing on your ambitious 28-photo hunt in the February photo contest and it seems to assume many of us amateur photographers have as much time as the pros ... maybe next month will get me back into the competition again ... assuming you return to one best pix at a time ... thanks for listening to another point of view in the eye of this very busy beholder.

Oh, that's too bad, Jerry. I know this isn't for everyone, but I do try to vary the challenge of the monthly contests. Keep in mind that one photographer claims to have done all 28 photos in one weekend!

Hope to see you back next month ...

I thought it was fun, and frankly I go to work in the dark and get home in the dark 6 days a week and have a wife and 14-year-old sports/dance daughter who is busy on the weekends .... But I found this hunt a cool "Challenge" and managed to put together 28 photos. I will say is that one thing I felt I learned is what some "pros" deal with. I rarely take photos of something that I have no interest in photographing, yet things like pots of soup, calendars, and clocks were part of the deal. It kind of gave an insight to what it must be like to please a client as opposed to pleasing your own interests. I think I'll stick to my day job, but this challenge made for a reason to get up at 4:30 on a few Sundays in the middle of a miserable winter and have a desire, and reason, to get out and do something ... Thanks again. Mark

Thank YOU, Mark -- that was a really nice note. I appreciate it.

Hi
Where are the winners of the February contest? I enjoy your monthly contests, not only for my own entries, but love looking at other individuals work as well.

I love the humor contest, but is it okay that one of the entries is a stock photo that I have seen for years?

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=cat+with+lime+helmet&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Not to be annoying, but I work hard to take the picture following all of the rules (taken this month, etc...)

Sorry to throw people under the bus.

Gosh, still waiting to see RAW contest winners for Feb, Mar, and now April almost 2 weeks into the month? Discourages me from sharing...is there a shortage of judges who have time to 'judge?" Thanks...

Hi,

I submitted my photos for the April 2012 contest (Theme: Photo Editing). I have submitted 2 photos (as per the guidelines). First the after Photo (with all the editing described in detail), and then the before photo (with description). This is the first time, I submitted any picture. I dont know why, but for some reason, my pictures are not showing up. Can someone please let me know as what could be the possible reason for the pictures not showing up. Thanks.

Hi Vikram, I hope you've seen that both of your photos have been approved and are live in the submission gallery now:

http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/contests/2012/04/photo_editing/

I submitted a photo yesterday for your July contest however, I don't see it on your site...is there any way to know if you received it or not? Should I just try submitting it again???

Hello, I submitted a photo for the October green contest, but did not know I had to tag it until after I uploaded it to the site...will my photo be seen? It does show on the contest page. Thanks

Two year anniversary coming up. ...February 2010 contest.