Your thoughts on the monthly themes

Hi, Rich here,
Not for nothing, but I just went back over the 37 comments on the August results comment page, and I counted 16 positive comments and only 7 negative comments regarding the winning photo. The negative comments focused on the fact that I took a "cute" "snapshot" of a dog with my camera phone. One person even called me a "lucky s.o.b." after making it clear that he had spent hundreds of dollars on his equipment.

I thought this was a "Photo" contest, not a "Photographers" contest, but after one month you want to change the rules because a handful of jealous people didn't like the fact that their submission didn't win.

I say don't change a thing. If you turn this into a technical contest, you will alienate a large block of participants. As the adage goes, "The cream rises to the top". Things will work themselves out.

A note to everyone: When you push that button, the only person you should be trying to please is yourself. Be the best YOU can be. If you're trying to be better than the other guy, you're gonna lose your "focus".

I say - great job for the first month Teresa. Can't stump us in the first month! :-)

But I agree - let's have some abstract concepts, or more vague themes. They may potentially create a larger diversity.

Getting something up and running, in this case the RAW photo contest, is always a huge task and the end result will never please everyone. It's just one of those things where you have to implement a plan, get some feedback and make modifications for the second version. Although the August contest has created some controversy, I appreciate all the time and effort that Teresa and other Boston.com staff put into this.

One of the positives that came out of all the comments is that there are a lot of great suggestions for moving forward. My favorite so far is to have a professional photographer filter through the contest entries and select say 20 photographs for the public to vote on. I still like the aspect of having the general public vote since it gets more of the Boston.com community involved. Plus, for me, I enjoy both professional and non professional feedback on my photographs. As I see it any feedback is something I can learn from as I continue to develop my photography skills.

I also like the idea of having some monthly theme be a bit more challenging. Maybe the RAW community could provide suggestions for these more challenging themes. I'm going to try to think of some myself.

While I love these photo contests, I do agree the themes can be a little overly generic.

What if they were just a tad more specific? Not terribly so, just somewhat.

Off the top of my head, "Like father, like son" (or "Like mother, like daughter") could be a lot of fun.

Ugh - I'm sort of turned off at how many people are having issues with this contest. Not sure what they are actually trying to get out of it. I think it is fun and I enjoy looking at all of the pictures. While I agree the themes are maybe a little too broad, I believe all the complainers should find other photo contests.

I think a Reader's Choice winner is valid. Like someone else said, it picks up on the emotional impact of the image--and helps build up this new community. But as someone who'd like to get better, I'd also like to see some Pro's Picks (more like the Professional Critique on RAW which is both inspiring and educational).

If you stick with a basic topic, maybe narrow the results down into more specific interpretations of that theme (though there will always be some photos that can't be neatly categorized; e.g. for last month: scenic, action, people, animals). Or as others have said, maybe narrow it by level (amateur and serious amateur; denoted by a 4th tag on the image--or an entirely different contest? Though, I think it would be neat to see the differences in the images if both levels used the same theme!)

1 more thing, what is RAW's Flickr ID, so I can add you to my Contacts (& prohibit non-Contacts from downloading my images)? Thank you for this Free incentive to get back into more artistic photography!

I kind of like the My Neighborhood theme. It's enabled me to get new perspectives on some familiar places.

I think that having the public pick a winner (vs. a pro) can sometimes be seen as unfair in the sense that people can skew the results by asking friends/family to vote for their picture. (However, who knows how many of those friends/family actually follow through and vote?)

First of all, hooray for this. I love this section of Boston.com, and I love the contest. Thanks for all the hard work you've put into this, Teresa!

As an aspiring photographer who takes classes and fiddles with his camera every day, I can honestly say I was surprised when last month's photo won. To me though, that shows how technology has changed the way everyone operates their daily life. From social networking sites like facebook and myspace, to "how to" sites like wikipedia, everything is becoming easier, and the world is becoming smaller daily. Numerous media outlets now publish cell phone pics and amateur video from folks who just happen to be in a newsworthy place at the right time.

So if a guy with a cell phone camera can take a picture that captures an audience better then my 2000 dollars worth of equipment, I say rock on, and maybe I should get a refund on all those camera classes I took!

I say keep the format the same, but maybe narrow down the subject and filter out photos that don't really fit the month's theme. If us amateurs want feedback, there's a million sites out there where you can post your pics and get good strong feedback from others in the field. This is boston.com's contest and I want Boston readers to decide the outcome!

I like Reader's Choice. I thought it was great that the winning photo was taken with a cell phone. First, it underlines the old adage of the photographer being responsible for the great photo, not the camera. Second, greatness in a photo provokes a reaction, an emotion in the viewer, and, while the technical elitists can cavil all they'd like, they are never going to change what touches the human heart.

I say ignore the few who complain. No matter what, there is always a subgroup of people who love to complain, so there is no sense changing the rules -- they will only find something else to complain about.

Somehow I missed this thread, and posted my comments in the August winners thread instead. Cut and pasted below.

Teresa, a couple of related wishes for the site:

1. Organize the threads (as in the following link) so that their subjects are categorized and displayed at a top level. It will make finding and navigating them much easier.

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?act=idx

2. It would be nice to be able to read all the postings of a selected poster.

Below are my comments posted in the winners thread:
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Teresa, I think leaving the theme broad as it is will work better. That way, voters can react based on simple gut (eyeball?) reaction to an image. They don't need to explain or justify anything. Let the votes decide.

Making a theme narrower or more challenging can lead to several problems. For example, narrowing down the "My neighborhood" theme could mean a specific genre, such as documentary, portrait, architecture, etc. It can exclude many entries. And who will decide whether an entry fits the genre or not? It can quickly become a can of worms.

Creating different levels of shooters can also be problematic. How and who would decide who belongs to which level?

I think the wish for "better" themes originate from the losers. And they are missing the point of entering into contests like this one. Contestants should be encouraged to SHARE and SHOW their work as their priority, and at ALL levels. Winning should be a distant second intent (wish?). With an open mind and an educated eye, both winners and losers can learn something in the process. And more importantly, all should be able to enjoy others' work.

Hi, fairnsquare: The link you sent is for a forums site -- a site with discussion boards. RAW is a blog, so I'm afraid I can't categorize the comments for you as though it were a message board. We do categorize the blog entries; each entry has a category above the headline, such a "Monthly Contests", that you can click on to see all the entries under that category. For example, I do that whenever I include a link for readers to be able to see all of our Photographers of the Week, or all of our Tipsheets.

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

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

I have started an Amateur Photography category over on our Forums, and have tried to spur some interest in them by writing about discussions over there a couple of times. They are here:
http://people.boston.com/forums/community/photography/

I am planning to design a new homepage for RAW that will organize the content better and keep interesting stuff near the top of the page longer. A blog format is great for many things, but it has its limitations.

On the themes: I think going with two themes a month, one general as you suggest and one more challenging as many others have requested, is a way to satisfy both camps. And honestly, it has been part of my plans since before launch.

Deciding whether a photo fits a theme or not is fairly easy; I had to do it for the August "At the beach" theme and eliminated about a half-dozen photos for that reason. And there won't be any rules about who can enter which contest: I'll leave that up to the photographers. If they want to stick with the General category one month, and enter a photo that fits a theme like "Two by Two", fine. But if they want to challenge themselves and try their hand at silhouettes, or macro shots, then great -- go for it.

Finally, your last words about showing and sharing are exactly right: That IS what we should all strive for. Thank you for stating it so eloquently.

I want to comment about the "losers" saying that they want better themes: My picture was an honorable mention, so I'm not a "loser", and I said I would like more CHALLENGING themes, not "better" themes. I think Teresa did a wonderful job picking October themes - who's up for the challenge??

Also, I love someone's comment about having a "pro pick" - that's great ... let the public vote and show that winner, and then have a separate "pro pick".

Also, I love your idea to filter out the photos to say 20-30 ... all great modifications to the contest~

Teresa, thanks for the clarification. As you can tell, I'm behind the times and am more familiar with forums than with blogs :-)

When you design your new homepage, can you consider making your existing forum more prominent and active:

http://people.boston.com/forums/community/photography/

For example, maybe keeping the "Upcoming" items such as "other photo sites" and "shows" in the forum can generate more activity there. Just a thought.

Lastly, in your contests calls (as least the General category), stating that "showing and sharing" should be the primary intent can align many's expectation, as well as getting more, or the "right" kind of entries.

Keep up the good work.

Very interesting site, Hope it will always be alive!

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