New Photo Contest???

I must be missing something, but why did we drop the old photo contest forum in favor of a new format? I thought Bob was doing a bang-up job of running the contest. IMHO

Jim - yes, Bob did a great job!

Details soon about the new contest and new format. We'll have a panel of judges and fairly big prizes for winners. Contests will run for two months at a time, probably. Details are still being determined.

Most likely, the Picture of the Week will return as well -- really being updated weekly. It will run side-by-side with the "official" contest, and users will vote on winners.

I would suggest topics that lend themselves to cold water divers.

i would suggest topics for people with more sense who stay in the warm waters

brrrrrr

cold water .... brrrrrrrrr ..... maybe one day i'll force myself into the galapagos just cause, but the thought is chilling !

The "official" contest will be themeless.

The POTWs will probably be themed, unless you all prefer unthemed contests in general...

thoughts?

I especially liked that the contests was themed. It made them more challenging and the pictures more compareable.

I would vote for staying with themed contests

Simon

I'd also like to see the contests themed, especially with this year's themes. It obviously means that sometimes people won't be able to enter if they don't have an image to meet the theme, but I personally feel it makes the contest more challenging and the entries more interesting.

Just my $0.02

Giles, please stay put of the cold water and please do not recommend it to anyone.

That way we can enjoy the amazing coloUr and abundance of marine lives secretly. After being to Manado and Lembeh I would say Port Hardy, British Columbia equals it. I also understand that Cousteau ranked it #1 or 2 in terms of places he would dive if he had to select. Oops, shhhh :wink:

As for the new contest, sounds great. As for the previous contest, also excellent job by Bob. Thank you for all your time, effort, and advice.

I think a theme levels the playing field. It also gives members a challenge, and helps them to learn the different and creative ways one can shoot the same subject. Unthemed contests tend to have similar images win...just check the winners in the wide angle category of most photo contests. Ooooh, shark. Oooh, dolphin, Oooh whale, Oooh turtle. Oooh, silouette of diver with light. (Generally a female diver). It's not that I don't appreciate the shots, but it seems a bit according to a formula, rather than artistic. After all, it's not for a magazine cover. Macro tends to do poorly, unless it's a rare creature, even though it can be a much more striking shot.

Themes based on ideas, ( such as "the colour red", "togetherness", "texture"rather than equipment would be my preference, though as I noticed us film shooters are no longer eligible, perhaps my opinion is a moot point!

I agree with scubamarli and davephdv... I love themes, but sometimes they exclude cold water divers because the topic is of a fish that doesn't occur in temperate waters. And wide anlge always beats out the macro shots, so a way to mitigate that is via a good theme.

Actually that is a good point about cold water subjects. By not limiting to a specific species many others can participate.

As for the female diver with the light...I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.

Marli, at least film can still enter the BTS in the digital category.LOL No disrespect intended.

Another vote for the new contest to be themed. with only 6 contests a year though the themes would have to be fairly general. I thought Bob's themes were eeeexcellent (sorry, watching the Simpson's).

Thanks, guys.

The new contests will start in the next few days. There will be a bi-weekly or weekly themed contest, with user-voting, and a bi-monthly, judged, open contest (no themes) with prizes for the winners.