**Photo Contest Discussion (all discussion here)

[mountaineer]

I think someone needs to pay alittle more attention around here.

[mountainLight]

North Peak #1
Lee Vining

This last image is almost identical to one of mine I got this year. Didn't end up posting it because I saw this. I wonder how close together they were shot.

http://www.lightontheedges.com/index.php?showimage=20

[mountaineer]

I took the gravel roads up to the ridge that overlooked Grant lake. From there i hiked up to the rocky ridge just above the lowest aspen grove. From that ridge, i took this shot.

By the way, I used to post on another site...I used the handle "mountainlight" just like you do. The manager of the Galen Rowell gallery sent me a nasty e-mail threatening me with legal action for infringing on their trademark. What a load of crap! Like little old me was some sort of threat to their financial existence. Morons.

[ERIC]

Time for nominations! A quick recap of how this works:

NOMINATIONS:

1) Between February 14th and February 28th I will accept nominations from the group of photos submitted (by name - see importance of #4 above) to be included in the final vote.
2) Only one photo nomination per member will be accepted, and you cannot vote for your own photos.
3) Nominations will be accepted by either PM'ing or emailing your selection to me. Please include photo name and photographer name in your nomination correspondence.
4) Only the Top 10 nominated photos will be included in the final poll. It is possible a single photographer may have more than one photo make it into the final 10. If ties occur, the photo which was nominated first (time stamp of the email or PM) will be selected - so get your nominations in early!

[ERIC]

Only about a dozen or so nominations in so far. If you haven't put your nomination in yet, do so!

And remember, earliest nominations trump in a tie.

[ERIC]

Nomination deadline is this Saturday. If you haven't submitted your nomination, you still have time!

[mokelumnekid]

Maybe I missed guidelines as to how much "cleaning up" of photos is acceptable? I only ask because the use of photoshop, color saturation and other 'tools' seems to becoming the norm in an effort to make photos look 'purty' ala Albert Bierstadt's romantic landscapes It has really gotten out of hand, IMHO, in the Sierra pic groups on places like flickr. So what kind of guidelines establish base-line artistic integrity for landscape or Sierra-subject photography here?

[ERIC]

Maybe I missed guidelines as to how much "cleaning up" of photos is acceptable? I only ask because the use of photoshop, color saturation and other 'tools' seems to becoming the norm in an effort to make photos look 'purty' ala Albert Bierstadt's romantic landscapes It has really gotten out of hand, IMHO, in the Sierra pic groups on places like flickr. So what kind of guidelines establish base-line artistic integrity for landscape or Sierra-subject photography here?

Not being much of a photography intellectual myself, it didn't dawn on me to consider Photoshopping in the contest rules. However, even if I had, you probably know as well as anybody that doing so would have more than likely resulted in endless debate over entries. But I could be wrong. I just know I've seen those kinds of debates before, and they usually get pretty nasty. I mean, we're talking about a contest that has a grand prize of a coffee mug, a small button and two bumper stickers here - not a large cash prize or anything of real value.

Next time we hold a similar contest, I'll do some poking around to see how other sites have conducted their own photo contests. Maybe stumble upon a solution for next time.

[mokelumnekid]

Thanks Eric, I understand how hard it is to get ahead of this issue and that it can indeed be contentious. Nice to get some consensus just to level the playing field for one, and to see what kind of great pics the Sierra can provide without all the lipstick. As an example here are some of the rules from the "Unaltered Landscapes" group on flickr that might apply:

1. No post-processing allowed except for cropping and framing
2. No artificial monochrome backgrounds
11. No HDR, Orton, cloning, adding textures, IR, vignetting, adjusting contrast or saturation

Anyway, just some thoughts. Thanks for all your work on this site btw.

[Flycanoe]

One thing I would like to suggest and that has been done for photo contests at other sites is to have 2 different entry categories. One category is for point and shoot cameras only, the other category allows any camera. This encourages more participation from a broader range of skill and equipment levels.

[daverave]

Thanks Eric, I understand how hard it is to get ahead of this issue and that it can indeed be contentious. Nice to get some consensus just to level the playing field for one, and to see what kind of great pics the Sierra can provide without all the lipstick. As an example here are some of the rules from the "Unaltered Landscapes" group on flickr that might apply:

1. No post-processing allowed except for cropping and framing
2. No artificial monochrome backgrounds
11. No HDR, Orton, cloning, adding textures, IR, vignetting, adjusting contrast or saturation

Anyway, just some thoughts. Thanks for all your work on this site btw.

I sympathize with your thoughts mkid as I try to limit the DEGREE of post-processing in my photos to make them reflect as best as possible the reality of the scene. However, you must realize that your first rule would practically eliminate ALL of the great wilderness photographs ever done by all of the great masters. Hence Adams' Zone System, etc., etc. No photographer should have to submit the photo as it came right out of the camera, whether digital or on film. The problem is that the overuse of saturation has created wilderness ****, IMHO, and even people like Galen Rowell strayed into that area sometimes. It's worthwhile to browse around his shop in Bishop and compare the original slides with the prints that are produced from those slides.

A difficult quandary to manage but I would still take issue with your first "rule."

[mountaineer]

Wow! This is a tough crowd. I had a photo that was selected by the editors as one of the top 60 finalists out of 4000 entries in an Outdoor Photographer contest and it didn't even make the top ten here. LOL!

By the way, NO processsing would be fine by me.