There are some comments in this article about this photo not deserving to win the "Around the world with Lightroom" travel photo contest. They won a trip to Thailand with legendary photographer Steve McCurry. the guy who photographed Afghan Girl.
The article brings up some interesting ideas about the difference between a snapshot and a photograph and competition and personal taste....
Personally I think photography is so subjective anyway and this article is a bit pompous...... what do you think?
I think the photo is below average at best. When I checked out the other submissions I had to wonder if this contest was really on the up and up. Perhaps the fix was in for the winner, because I can't imagine the judges thinking behind choosing this over ANY of the other runner ups.
Whilst I think his critique is fair enough, I have to agree with you about the tone of the article. I'm not a fan of lists of what makes a great picture, and if the judges liked it then that's that.
With regards to the photo, it's not my cup of tea, but I do think it has a certain charm that is missing from a lot of 'technically perfect' photographs.
I think the popularity vote probably played a key role with the final pool of shots the judges had to work with. It an average shot (my opinion) but perhaps has more meaning than a landscape, waterfall, ocean, etc. photo. Afterall it is a true real life scene that isn't staged or heavily processed. There's some merit to that. Also a lot depends on the guidelines and rules of the contest to begin with. Perhaps they were supposed to follow some criteria. Dunno....
It was the votes that helped put it over the top. I've seen here quite a bit where people ask us to vote for them on a website. American Idol is won by number of votes. If the picture had the most votes I'd say that's a big factor.
STEVE MCCURRY!!!!! One of my photographic heroes! Good luck to her I say.....I think the point is not about technique and photographic excellence but more about a photograph telling a story which I think it does in a way....it was after all open to everyone and their travel photography which included snapshots sooooooo
I'd have deleted the picture before it even got the chance to download! Shocking. But might as well be a lot less fussy about pics entered into competitions.
It reminds me of when I used to do caption competitions, you'd think of something clever and the judges were so naive they'd make the winner something cheesy that had already won several other comps. C'est la vie :-)
I once entered a comp which was linked to fcbk and the comp guidelines said that the winner would be the "most liked" photo. Needless to say, a shit photo won.
@bobfoto I used to belong to a usenet group for competitions but stopped because they were actively rigging voting comps so a member won, even if they didn't deserve it!
I have to agree, runners up were much better, just compositions alone were better in the runners up. Loved the runner up #2, 'layover in Vegas airport'.
Would love to go enter more competitions. But I'm uninterested in making more FB friends and promoting my photos to garner extra votes. Seems like so many competitions run on number of likes from whatever social network site and unless you are the first entrant or the last, your photo probably won't get viewed by the average peruser of the contest and will only be visited by those you invite to see and vote.
Oh well. And congrats to the winner, hope they have a good trip and learn a ton.
@bobfoto What the world needs now is more frogs on 'matoes :) No, seriously. I'm not kidding. Really!
I would never have chosen that photo... I think that all of the runner up choices were better than the winner. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
Why did this glorified snapshot win? Market demographics. This wasn't so much a "photo contest", as it was a marketing gimmick, not much more than a sweepstakes drawing disguised as a contest. The market so many advertisers go for is the "young family" with children under eighteen and adults between 18 & 50. The contest also relied on "votes" - a popularity contest. So a "winning" photo including a young family was inevitable. The winning photo also must not be too "professional" either - too intimidating for the "masses." So a glorified snapshot won. I looked at the other entries and the runner-up shots. Had I known about the "contest", I'd have voted for any of the others, not the eventual winner.
I must say, this photo does have charm. It's not "tecnically perfect" but I am sick to death of photos that are taken without feeling or meaning and then manipulated until the colours are unreal and it just looks like a big fake. Personally I enjoy to look at photos that I can tell have been made by a camera, not just a few clicks of the mouse. I'm afraid today it's too easy to make something out of nothing. But true emotion, or an actual feeling that attracts me and connects me with a photograph is rare these days. At Uni we look at a lot of photographers from the 80s, especially those who have books on intimate photography. Those are preffered by me
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
With regards to the photo, it's not my cup of tea, but I do think it has a certain charm that is missing from a lot of 'technically perfect' photographs.
I don't think I would have picked that as the winner, but I wasn't the judge. What a cool prize.
It reminds me of when I used to do caption competitions, you'd think of something clever and the judges were so naive they'd make the winner something cheesy that had already won several other comps. C'est la vie :-)
oh well oh well.
should of stuck a frog on a 'mato....
*runs to look for competitions to enter*
Oh well. And congrats to the winner, hope they have a good trip and learn a ton.
@bobfoto What the world needs now is more frogs on 'matoes :) No, seriously. I'm not kidding. Really!
Anyway, I will be going to Thailand without any contest in less then 28 day! Woohoo...life is good ;)