August contest theme: Architecture

neat theme, and congrats on your 1 year birthday! It would be a great cause to have a meet up, maybe some of the Globe photogs could also swing by to chat w/ us amateurs...

I like the new rule and congratulations on RAW's 1 year anniversary!

I also like the new rules but I'd like to make a suggestion. Rather than limit the photo being taken in the month of the contest, why not expand the date to the date that the theme is announced? So for example, the date the photo must be taken for August would be expanded to July 24th. I don't think it is an issue for a theme such as architecture, but it might be an issue for other themes (motion comes to mind). That's just a thought for future month's contests as it would allow photographers to get started as soon as the contest theme is announced and possibly not miss a good opportunity or shot.
I also like Chris' suggestion of a meet up with Globe photographers. That would be fun.

I second Anon's suggestion re: from date of announcement to month end for the window.

Hi everybody -- just to clarify, the rule that a photo must be taken during the month of August applies only to this contest. I'm not making that the rule for all future contests. We'll see how this one goes, and if it seems to work out okay, then perhaps we'll try it a few times a year.

BOO.. i don't like this August 09 rule.

I really like the rule of having to take it during the month (or when the subject is announced). It makes it very timely and eliminates people from just pulling from their archives. I view the monthly contest as a challenge to go out and take the best picture I can on that subject and as someone who likes to take pictures it just makes it more fun.

Question on the timestamp rule: must we shoot digital??!
(Although, I could step it up a bit and find architecture that has a timepiece on/in it, or a circumstance or feature that would place it in time-context.)

That's a good point, Gretchen; although some film cameras do have a time/date stamp option, many do not. I guess I'll just have to trust you ... ;-)

Soooo, since Boston.com will start charging for access, how much will it cost and will I need to buy if I want to participate in RAW?

HA! I was confused by your comment, Hadley, until I read the story about the Times and the Globe in the paper today and saw the reference to charging for online content. Believe me, thinking about whether newspapers or other content providers should charge for our content online has been going on for years. Around 2001 and 2002, we charged $10 or $20 a year for our @Bat Insider Red Sox email newsletter. We stopped because we realized we could get more revenue from advertising in the newsletter.

Nothing's definite; every news website is looking at ways to get more revenue as print subscriptions decline and the recession continues. Hopefully the economy will turn around and advertising will come back.

I like the new rule for August (but would prefer to expand it to the date that the theme is announced) and hope that it will continue in the months to come. I believe that it will challenge us all to get out there and keep shooting and to become even better at what we love.

Happy Birthday RAW!!! I'm glad that we are trying out the rule. I think it encourages everyone participating to go out and experience something new. From the feedback written so far it looks like most others feel that way as well. Kudos to RAW for trying it!

Do you have to be a certain age to enter the monthly contests?

A digital photo's metadata can be altered, including the time/date stamp.

More rules, more complaints, and more problems. No rules, no themes, and free for all is the way to go. Let the images speak for themselves.

the time/date stamp always ruins the photo which is why i'll NEVER use it especially not for a photo showing architecture or landscape.

OK, a few answers:

MRob: No, there is no age limit to enter RAW's monthly contests. However, I noticed that the Travel section's rules for the National Parks photo contest does have an age limit of 18. I'll look into that to see why. (It's a little embarrassing since I was the editor of Boston.com when those rules were written, but I just didn't pay as close attention to them as I am now that RAW is up and running!)

You're right that metadata can be altered, fairnsquare, but if somebody goes to the bother of doing that just to win a hundred bucks, well, they must be pretty desperate, don't you think?

And miek: I'm sorry I wasn't clearer when talking about the date/time stamp. I don't mean anything that would appear on the actual image; I'm talking about the metadata that digital cameras append to photos and that is visible on Flickr or by looking at the File Info of a photo in editing software such as Photoshop.

Is RAW going to have a September contest?

It depends. In our town, $100 won't pay for a meal in many places, but can also pay for a couple of weeks' grocery for some. But the bragging right of WINNING a RAW contest is priceless :-)

My point on contest rules, etc. stands.

If you are responsible for the rules of the National Park photo contest, I think I have found the guilty party. The rules:

- ask the photographers to grant all future rights of use of their submissions, winners or otherwise, by numerous parties

- ask the photographers to allow cropping and altering of their submissions

- do not mentioning whether credits would be given

In summary, these rules show complete disrespect for the photographers and their work.

http://www.boston.com/travel/getaways/us/specials/nationalparksrules/

There are plenty of excellent National Park photographers out there, but I don't consider the majority of the entries of this contest are from them. Perhaps they read the fine prints and wisely passed. Such rules are nothing but a lose-lose situation for both sides.

No wonder many photographers are up in arms:

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36847

Whoops, I didn't read the rules because I always submit ... No big deal; it's all about showing great images, not the hundred bucks ... I would have donated it anyhow to a local Boston charity ... You raw dawgs are lucky - my shot was amazing...

Yeah, fair, I'm not responsible for the photo contest rules that are posted with the National Parks contest in our Travel section; I thought they were left over from my term as editor of Boston.com, and I was a little baffled why I didn't remember them, but apparently they are a new set of rules. I'm working on making all of our photo contest rules uniform, and not including language that takes a photographer's copyright.

Fair: seems more like anarchy is what you seek lol. There is a balance between anarchy and communism and it's called common sense. No rules equates to no perspective (e.g. you can submit a picture of a cat in a contest for penguins). The entire concept of a contest is that there is a goal (aka prize) that you can get if you "follow the rules" of the contest to do your best to meet expectations of the contest hosts. Without rules, then he who carries the biggest gun wins or who is faster than those with the biggest gun and can take the prize and run. hhmmmm not a lot of fun for most involved, you think?

What are the rules for the entry deadline? I posted a photo to flickr with the tags 'boston.com', 'contest', and 'august' before the deadline, but I only noticed today that the tagging scheme had changed.

Hi Dave,

No worries ... As long as your photo was taken in the month of August (an experimental rule that applies only to the August contest) and uploaded it to Flickr by midnight Aug. 31, then all you have to do is go back to that photo on Flickr and fix the tags. Add 2009 after August so it becomes august2009 with no spaces, and add a 4th tag: architecture.

Then email a link to your Flickr photo page to raw@boston.com and we'll check it out and add it to the gallery.

When are we going to start voting for the August theme?