Really Viewbug?

PixelRabbit · Sep 7, 2015

I've been participating on Viewbug this summer and just noticed something that makes me go hmmm....
Checking out the finalists of the Best Water Shots 2015 finalists I found 3 shots of the same tree!
Really Viewbug? smh

Photo Contests- Digital Photography | Digital Photo Sharing at Viewbug | Photography Contest

D-B-J · Sep 7, 2015

Yeah but that's like THE MOST famous photography-tree in the world, I think. Whether or not I agree with it, it's logical that it appears in the contest more than once. Some locations have just been photographed a bajillion times--that tree being one of them.

PixelRabbit · Sep 7, 2015

Oh come on, 3 versions of the same tree out of 30K+ entries???? That's pretty bad.

sm4him · Sep 7, 2015

I hate Viewbug. I tried it a little bit last year, and gave up on it pretty quickly. Lately, they've been so desperate that they email me and tell me *they* picked one of my photos to put in a contest, as was the case with the Best Water shots. It wasn't even what I would have technically classified as a water shot; it was one of my oil & water abstracts, but it's all about the abstract and color, not water.

PixelRabbit · Sep 7, 2015

Yeah that's how I ended up in this contest but admit after being a finalist a couple times I was roped in, methinks I won't be wasting time and energy there anymore though smh.

vintagesnaps · Sep 7, 2015

I've run across it before, seems to be just another so-called photo rights grab site, trying to get site users to sell photos thru them, or let them license photos, etc. Even if some people don't, they probably get enough that do.

I think they seem to have figured out many people are signing up and probably not looking at the Terms and they can take advantage of that. Some of these sites don't seem bad at first, but it seems to be a popularity contest as far as what pictures get chosen. Maybe a good decision to get your photos off there and not use the site any more.

Designer · Sep 7, 2015

PixelRabbit said:
Oh come on, 3 versions of the same tree out of 30K+ entries???? That's pretty bad.

Well, it's not like they're posted right next to each other, and the photos are apparently made by different people. Maybe it was a class that was taught by the editor. Maybe the editor just likes that tree. Many there are three different editors and they never talk to each other. Or look at the other editor's choices. Or maybe there weren't really 30,000 entries, they're just saying that, and this is all there were.

PixelRabbit · Sep 7, 2015

Well, true, yes there can be a ton of reasons for it, but it doesn't make it less lame. Reality check time for wasting time on a site when I likely should have known better

jsecordphoto · Sep 7, 2015

I didn't even check the photos and I know it's the Wanaka Tree lol

Derrel · Sep 7, 2015

Well, that's kind of the way things go on the big aggregator sites...I swear, people see a decent landscape image, and they comb the 'net with a piece of data or two about it, find the location, and then go out with the express idea of recreating or re-envisioning an already-shot and seen image. At the popular locations in each state in the union. And in Canada. And across the globe. GPS tagging of images on social media sites and blogs and web sites can lead to some pretty exacting recreations of nature pictures. I suspect that tree is very well known to people who live within 250 miles of it.

Designer · Sep 7, 2015

Apparently it's known the world over. There are hundreds of photos of that tree.

O.K., everybody, let's find a different tree, shall we?

D-B-J · Sep 7, 2015

Google "Wanaka Tree" and you'll see a bajillion photos.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NancyMoranG · Sep 7, 2015

Never heard of the site, but there are some amazing photos there!! Thanks!

vintagesnaps · Sep 10, 2015

The name of the company that owns it Golozo LLC came up in a search as also owning this other website.

Maybe I should say NSFW? it's iffy, if you look at this, maybe don't do it at work!

Pixelpick - Aboutus Pixel

At least I guess it's the same owner/company, the contact page didn't connect to anything, and I just looked at the terms enough to compare some and they seem to be worded the same.

I guess if you don't win any prizes on the one you could get on the other and submit some sexy pics and see if you win on there! I'll just stay away from both I think! lol