Weekly photo contest #3 (03/25/08)

[pdxflint]

This is the third thread in the "photo of the week" contest thread 'series.'

Big thanks to SLC Flyfishing for having facilitated the first one!

Rules (Copied from the first thread)

#1 You may submit only one photo per contest.

#2 The contest runs for exactly one week, from the time stamped on the first post in the thread (this will be made by the winner of the previous week's contest).

#3 Please refrain from commenting on the photos submitted in the contest. I think that a good photograph is one that can appeal to someone who may not know much about the technical aspects of photography. I think it would be best if the judge isn't swayed by someone else's opinion of the photograph.

The judge will decide his/her favorite at the end of the week, place a post listing it and a short synopsis of why he/she chose that photo. The winner is then responsible for starting a new thread containing a new contest and topic which again will run for exactly one week.

This weeks topic is: Technology In Our World

This is a broad topic that can go in many directions, and include many different styles of photos. Old, rusty technology to cutting edge digital to medical technology, etc. etc. or it's uses. It's a wide-open topic, so don't hold back. Try to avoid basic product shots if you can, because that's another topic, unless the picture is more about technique than simply the object in the shot. If you show me your iPod, make it interesting somehow. Bottom line: it's up to you how you see the topic.

It probably would help me evaluate the photos (and hopefully, since this is a learning thread where everyone who participates is a winner...) if each photographer said a few words about his/her own photo.

This should be a fun topic, and I'm looking forward to what all of you come up with. This can be a fun, creative exercise as long as we realize it is an opportunity to share ideas, rather than a competition. When I choose a photo to close this week's 'contest' it will be not so much because it is the best photo, but because somehow I saw enough merit in the photo to hand the assignment of running the next exercise over to it's creator.

 

[Grimace]

This is the third thread in the "photo of the week" contest thread 'series.'

This should be a fun topic, and I'm looking forward to what all of you come up with. This can be a fun, creative exercise as long as we realize it is an opportunity to share ideas, rather than a competition. When I choose a photo to close this week's 'contest' it will be not so much because it is the best photo, but because somehow I saw enough merit in the photo to hand the assignment of running the next exercise over to it's creator.

Just to recap, we have threads for:

Photo of the Day

1. "Photo of the Day" original thread - very long, multi-month thread. Worth it!
2. "Photo of the Day" - November 2007
3. "Photo of the Day" - December 2007
4. "Photo of the Day" - January 2008
5. "Photo of the Day" - February 2008
6. "Photo of the Day" - March 2008

Monthly Photo Critique Threads

1. Photo Critique - February 2008
2. Photo Critique - March 2008

Assignments

Rules

1. Assignment 1 - Holiday Preparation (multiple threads)
2. Assignment 2 - Cold
3. Assignment 3 - Nature in Unexpected Places
4. Assignment 4 - Insanity of Humanity or Metal
5. Assignment 5 - Water
6. Assignment 6 - Contrasts
7. Assignment 7 - Yellow
8. Assignment 8 - Buildings/Urban
9. Assignment 9 - Doorknobs
10. Assignment 10 - Transformation or Motion
11. Assignment 11 - Quiet or Transportation
12. Assignment 12 - Darkness and Light
13. Assignment 13 - Steps
14. Assignment 14 - Wreck and Ruin
15. Assignment 15 - Things that fly
16. Assignment 16 - Overhead and Underneath
17. Assignment 17 - The Holidays
18. Assignment 18 - Trash - Current, ends 31st March

Weekly Photo Contest

1. TEXTURE
2. contrast
3. Technology In Our World

Since you wrote above that we "realize it is an opportunity to share ideas, rather than a competition" - isn't this thread redundant to the numerous other photo threads? Isn't it just an "Assignment" thread with an arbitrary one-person judiciary?

 

[pdxflint]

Just to recap, we have threads for:
Since you wrote above that we "realize it is an opportunity to share ideas, rather than a competition" - isn't this thread redundant to the numerous other photo threads? Isn't it just an "Assignment" thread with an arbitrary one-person judiciary?

I think we already had this discussion last thread. I participated, and was given the assignment to continue the thread.

Here's where I see this as being somewhat different: If your photo is selected by the previous "judge" then you get to be the judge. This exercise (which is what it probably should be called) can make someone have to work on their reasoning behind what they see, to have to make a judgement and explain it. It can expand the way one sees things by having to be truly fair and objective beyond "It's really cool. I like it but don't want to take the time to explain why..." It can be a great learning tool to be the judge as well as the judged.
That's why I see it as a win-win deal. Perhaps a bit redundant, but so are many of the other threads here.

If you, or anyone else doesn't want to participate, just ignore the thread.

 

[Grimace]

yeah, I know I'm a grouch. But, we do have a billion post-your-photo threads...I think the irksome part is a competition for the photo that is the "best". What if your choice for the winner is "wrong"? What if everyone else who viewed it thought the opposite way for a "winner".

It is essentially a post-your-photo thread where one person (the judge) gets to "comment" on merit. I guess I just like art to stay subjective.

oh well.

 

[pdxflint]

yeah, I know I'm a grouch. But, we do have a billion post-your-photo threads...I think the irksome part is a competition for the photo that is the "best". What if your choice for the winner is "wrong"? What if everyone else who viewed it thought the opposite way for a "winner".

It is essentially a post-your-photo thread where one person (the judge) gets to "comment" on merit. I guess I just like art to stay subjective.

oh well.

I know. I see where you're coming from, but maybe it is subjective when one person is making the decision, using their own reasoning and explaining it. It's not a poll or jury. It's not really about "best" but about why the judge chose the one he did. It puts the onus on that person to speak up, to tell the world why he/she responded to a particular image. Then it becomes that person's "duty" to lead the next exercise.

The problem (in this thread's case) with online discussion about all the pictures, involving all the participants or non-participants, is that it too easily breaks down to arguments about philosophical approaches, likes and dislikes, etc. and it then the whole process grinds to a halt instead of moving on. This thread gives a freedom from getting hung up on those arguments, hopefully. It's only one person's opinion, and they have to explain it - then done.

 

[otter]

My Submission. Communication technology has provided us with a lot of opportunities for connecting with people in ways that weren't possible even just a few years ago, this forum being a good example. Mobile phones allow us to keep in touch with just about anyone, anywhere, anytime. I think it's interesting, though, that the very same technologies that bring can people together from distant places, can, at the same time, create invisible 'walls' between us and those that are right there with us, sometimes in the same room. Who are you not out having a beer or dinner with right now because you're home reading this? When was the last time you went out with a friend and they spent half the time chatting on the phone to someone else?

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Technology in our world, OOH that's going to be challenging! Great topic pdxflint! I'll hopefully get out for some shooting this weekend.

Glad to see additional participation in contest #2, hopefully we'll get even more for #3 and each successive contest thereafter.

SLC

 

[Everythingisnt]

Technology may grow older, but it is never completely forgotten..

 

[pdxflint]

This week's "contest" is closing tomorrow, and so far just a couple of submissions - nice ones, I should add.

Maybe the thread just slipped too far down to get any attention, and bumping it might stimulate a bit more attention. So, if anyone else is interested in showing us your photo on this weeks "topic," I'd love to see it. Thanks. -pdxflint

Edit: Time to celebrate - just noticed this is my 500th post... I'm now a 6502. Time to start thinking about an avatar... not that I'm finally a full-fledged citizen of macrumors.com.

 

[pdxflint]

time's up...

I have a tough call to make since only two of you brave souls offered up your images this week, and I like them both. So, I'll make it short and sweet. This week's winner is:

Thematically, Otter nailed it with this interesting proposition of how technology, while bringing us closer together has also managed to build walls between us. This shot, while seemingly showing a picture we've all seen in on sense or another - the ubiquitous cellphone to the ear syndrome - illustrates to me at least, the irony of what the technology enables; It brings us closer together if we're apart, but pushes us further apart if we're together. A bit of humor one can imagine with this picture is to think of this couple deep in conversation with... each other...!! How completely crazy that would be, but then again. There they stand with all this world out there to gaze upon, and share, yet they spend their time living in an alternate dimension - a virtual world of the cellphone conversation.

I like the black and white with this picture. This creates an interesting contrast between the picture looking old, like something from another era, and the modern, taken-for-granted technology of cell phones.

Even without a bunch of entries, this was a good submission on the topic, and a worthy "selection" for this week. Congrats!

The other entry was also a well-composed, beautiful picture.

I love the light in this shot, and the contemplative mood it triggers. It's a quiet photo of a beautiful landscape which speaks to the presence of Man, as an explorer or harvester of the sea. It's about history, and all the unspoken, unrecorded lives that simply did what they had to to survive. Mastering the sea was a huge, huge technological hurdle to overcome, and this makes for a universally understood theme. Slight leaning of the horizon can be fixed. I really do like this image and feel it's a "winner" as well, but am handing the torch over to Otter to carry on next.

Cheers, and great shooting everyone!

 

[otter]

Thanks pdxflint! First time I've won anything with a photo.