Pixmedics Photo Contest V (AKA: The big one)

[SquarePeg]

Great photo! Meets the double theme perfectly. Congrats Dan.

 

[zombiesniper]

Congrats Dan. It is a great photo.

Thank you to pixmedic for running such a generous contest.

 

[adamhiram]

Nice job, Dan!

 

[DanOstergren]

I love that this photo won. It wasn't necessarily a curated shot, as I was having dinner with one of my best friends and his new beau, and after dinner he showed me these cheap mood lights that he had just purchased from Ikea that he was planning to set up in his kitchen underneath the cupboards. I had my camera with me and asked if we could experiment with the lights and see what sort of images we could come up with. The overall quality of the image isn't that great because of a high ISO setting and I have a tendency to under expose all of my photos, causing a decent amount of noise on my old 5D MKI. The impact of the shot overshadows any technical flaws for me, and I'm glad I didn't trash the shot for not being technically perfect.

 

[chuasam]

Of course I was rooting for me Hhaha but the best photo won. Great choice and well done Dan.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[goooner]

Congrats Dan, great shot.

 

[chuasam]

and the winner is.....

@DanOstergren with his entry,
View attachment 142673


Gratz Dan!


PM me your info so we can get your package in the mail.

Wow, I honestly wasn't expecting this, thank you!

a well deserved win, though the competition was fierce.

I would love to hear about the judging process and the thought that goes into it if you don't mind.
And great choice of winner by the way.

 

[pixmedic]

and the winner is.....

@DanOstergren with his entry,
View attachment 142673


Gratz Dan!


PM me your info so we can get your package in the mail.

Wow, I honestly wasn't expecting this, thank you!

a well deserved win, though the competition was fierce.

I would love to hear about the judging process and the thought that goes into it if you don't mind.
And great choice of winner by the way.

did you miss post #40? or did I miss something you were interested in knowing about?

 

[jcdeboever]

so many great shots, so few gift cards to give away...

before I post the results, I want to take a few minutes to discuss the contest itself.

first and foremost, as I try to state at the beginning of all my contests, although we do so by the grace and blessings of the TPF administration, (thank you @terri) these contests and prizes are a private deal done by the wife and I and are not a forum sponsored event. This is why the winner is chosen by us personally and not by votes.
secondly, like all contests that revolve around someones personal views of something, our contests are subjective. Me and the wife often have different photos that we "like" the best, but ultimately we have to come to consensus on one photo that we can agree best fits the theme. this is not always the best "technical" photo, and sometimes we have to pass on a photo that we personally like better for a photo that we ultimately feel better suits the theme. It can be quite the conundrum.
the double theme of this contest made the process even more difficult because we not only had to decide how well each photo fit into the "portrait" category, but also what sort of "emotional response" the picture elicited/portrayed to a third party with no prior knowledge/connection to the subject.
both are at least partially subjective, but ultimately we had to make a decision on both the "portrait" and "emotional response" criteria.
As a final note, I was asked about the actual judging process so ill go ahead and post it here...

basically, this is how it works.
I keep a loose eye on the thread from the time its posted to answer any questions, bump the thread, add additional info if needed, etc etc.
the wife, who isn't really active here anymore, typically doesn't look at the thread until I tell her its time to make a decision.
once the deadline has been reached, me and the wife will go over the thread a few times individually at our earliest convenience to form our own, separate opinions. once we are both sure we are familiarized enough with the entries we will gather the ferrets and sit down together to discuss which photos we felt best fit the theme. Usually by the time we get together we have narrowed it down to maybe two pictures each. sometimes our choices overlap, sometimes they are very different. we will discuss why we made the choices we did and the merits of each photo until we can agree on one photo that we can declare the winner. after that, its just a matter of getting on and updating the thread and finding the youtube video of kermit.
well, there it is.
I hope that clears things up a bit and everyone has a better understanding of how our contests work.

That's fantastic! Sounds like fun and your generosity is just, over the top! They're fun to participate in. I like the planning, journaling, and the challenge to execute. For me, it feels like I am trying to improve the art of my photography. Even though I didn't win, I had a great time and enjoyed seeing all the contributions. Thanks again for all your time and generosity.

 

[chuasam]

did you miss post #40? or did I miss something you were interested in knowing about?

I wanted to know more about the emotional response to each picture.
I wanted to hear about the laughter and the joys to each image as it was being reviewed.

 

[pixmedic]

did you miss post #40? or did I miss something you were interested in knowing about?

I wanted to know more about the emotional response to each picture.
I wanted to hear about the laughter and the joys to each image as it was being reviewed.

that's a toughie....
im not going to go over each individual critique here, but i will disclose some of our trade secrets, including a generalized breakdown of how we reach consensus. Its a proprietary algorithm I like to call, processus autem certamine victor eligens, but for the purpose of this post it will hereby simply be known as "the process".

I would like to preempt this dissertation with a warning and disclaimer: These contests are strictly the wife and I's (mine and the wifes? me and the wifes? the wife and me's?...#%@$... @limr help me out here please!) personal opinions in an already very subjective medium.
if you are prior entrants and/or feel you might be offended by my explanations of our subjectivity, please read no further. you have been warned.
if you are not easily offended and wish a bit of insight into "the process", then full steam ahead.

so, as you know, (if you read post #40) the first part of "the process" is us simply going over the pictures by ourselves, at our own pace. this normally happens over the course of a day in between other things.
this part is more of a "rule out" more than "picking a winner".
If you have read the full post of my more recent contests, you will also know that the contests are less about technical perfection and more about theme appropriateness and creativity.
so...ill go ahead and use this contest as an example. (last chance to stop reading if you think you might not like why your particular picture didn't win)

first up is the initial culling process...we feel there's no point in sitting down together to discuss things until we have narrowed our own choices down to a max of 2-3 pictures.
sometimes we have photos that are our favorites because we really like them, that we wish we could have taken, but are not necessarily the "best" for the theme.
please bear in mind that even within photography, the term "portrait" itself is pretty subjective. everyone has their own ideas, and its no secret which end me and the wife lean towards. some pictures ranked lower because we felt they fell more into the "snapshot" category than the "portrait" category. some pictures ranked lower because we felt that while they might have had an emotional value to the photographer, (maybe a family member) to an outside party looking in, it didn't evoke that same feeling. in some cases we were not even sure what "emotional response" we were supposed to be feeling, or was being projected.

@DanOstergren came in strong right out of the gate, but the red tint gave us some pause right up until the end.
for me, @zombiesniper just killed it. I was like, holy shite...i wish i had a shot like that in MY portfolio.
and @PhotoriousMe had another of my personal favorites.

the wife on the other hand, favored @adamhiram bubble mower shot, as well as Dans, despite her aversion to the red lighting.
@smoke665 was also high on her final list with the fuzzy.

now, since you brought this up @chuasam ill get to yours, and since you asked for it, I hope you will take this in the spirit in which it was given, with is with much respect.
you should have won man. you had it. everything we love about portraiture. its a brilliant portrait. we assumed this was a cancer patient/survivor?
but....the wife noted early on that there was just something missing. the expression? her head placement? a cancer awareness pin?
we never really pinned down exactly what we felt was off, only that there was just....something, keeping us from really feeling it.
in the end it came down to your shot and Dans, and in the interest of full disclosure, if you want the 100% honest-to-Zeus truth...
Dans shot really hit us in the feels, and yours did not.

well, there it is...
I hope I haven't been too offensive, but thats "the process" for this contest.

 

[JoeW]

Congrats DO! I was planning to enter but was intimidated by your entry and instead stayed on the sidelines.

 

[DanOstergren]

Congrats DO! I was planning to enter but was intimidated by your entry and instead stayed on the sidelines.

You could have beat me! Next time you should enter for sure.

 

[limr]

I would like to preempt this dissertation with a warning and disclaimer: These contests are strictly the wife and I's (mine and the wifes? me and the wifes? the wife and me's?...#%@$... @limr help me out here please!) personal opinions in an already very subjective medium.

When in doubt, avoid it completely and re-write

"These contests and their rules belong strictly to my wife and me."

"These contests are run strictly by my wife and me."

 

[zombiesniper]

for me, @zombiesniper just killed it. I was like, holy shite...i wish i had a shot like that in MY portfolio.

Thank you for the kind words.

It's also cool to read the process involved.