MAY 2008 - Discussion

[tasadam]

I created this topic for discussion of entries for the May competition, in keeping with past months.

Not much to discuss with my "photo" for this month, I put it up just for fun and don't expect it to be included in the voting topic.
If I did, I would have posted my coffee machine pic ...

[walkinTas]

You said you were getting a coffee machine, but damn that looks impressive. Its enough to make me start drinking coffee again!

[tasadam]

OK Well I suppose you should read the full story on the machine...
What's a bit of cross-linking between forums going to hurt!

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1211499685

Didn't take much of a prompt, did it?
(off topic warning)

[Chris]

I'm puzzled. Not quite sure whether to vote on artistic merit alone, or whether to take into consideration the relevance of the photos to bushwalking.
If a photo including a tram has been excluded (even if only because of its weight!) I wonder about a couple of the others which do not appear to have been taken whilst bushwalking. They are appealing photos, and I certainly appreciate the political aspect of the pile of destroyed trees, but maybe a few more guidelines for contributors?
On a purely selfish basis, for family reasons I can't do any serious bushwalking these days, but would like to be able to contribute photos at times.
Regardless of the above, I'm enjoying the forum. Great work Nik!

[Son of a Beach]

Hi Chris... the tram disqualification was partly tongue in cheek (as tasadam posting it at all was partly tongue in cheek, unless I misunderstood him).

However, being a bushwalking forum, it would be good if the competitions were specifically for bushwalking photos. On the other hand, I don't want the competitions to become too strict (they are just for fun for now, with no actual prizes on offer as yet). For now, the only content guidelines are that the photos should be 'related to bushwalking' in some way (I'll add something to the forum rules pink section above to indicate this shortly). However, since the competitions are fairly informal, just how closely related the photos have to be to bushwalking is between the photographer and myself, and if they can find a way of convincing me that their picture is related to bushwalking, then the photo is acceptable.

Similarly, if enough people can convince me that a particular photo is NOT related to bushwalking, I will disqualify it. Note that there is a discussion topic for each competition, where such debate can occur openly (or people can PM me, if they prefer). BTW, I'm going to move your post and this one to the discussion topic now.

Sorry to be a bit vague for now, but one of these days, I might be in a position to offer actual prizes for the competitions, in which case the rules will tighten up a fair bit.

Once the entries are in the voting line-up, it's entirely up to you how you vote. I probably tend to vote on the appeal to my own eye of the content (I guess this is artistic merit in my own way, but I'm not a very artistic person). I know several others here will be interested in the technical aspects of the photography. Some may like to take into account on how closely related to bushwalking the photo is when voting. I don't mind how people vote, but I guess I would say, just vote for the photo you like the best (for whatever reason).

[tasadam]

The tram photo was totally tongue in cheek. It was never meant to be included as a contender.
As I said in this post,

As such, there will be no photo from me this month.

And the caption for the tram photo was "no photo from me".
And I then created this topic, for discussion of the May photos.
Here I said

Not much to discuss with my "photo" for this month, I put it up just for fun and don't expect it to be included in the voting topic.

If the comments were overlooked and it had been included, I would have used my moderator abilities and removed it.

Sorry for the confusion.

At least this discussion has generated a rule introduction - bushwalking related. A good thing.
Otherwise we would end up with a general photography comp, which was not the original intention of the comp if I understood correctly.

[Joe]

Damn...MJR's entry is a cracker. I cant believe its not getting more votes. Exposure totally nailed on that one . That light painted shipwreck is a cracker too. Ive visited that wreck before and thought a night shot would be good...but Im rarely in Hobart at night nowdays.