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Tell me what do you think?
JAG
Super Moderators Posts: 9,088 moderator
Ok, the board was pretty active last week, even through Thanksgiving. Then the new challenges are put up and there is no response for 2 days. So let's hear your thoughts about the OOYCZ challenges.
Do you like it and are excited to get started?
Do they intimidate you because of all the reading there is in the OOYCZ Guide?
Are you unsure that you can critique?
Please folks, let me hear your thoughts and have your questions if you have any!
Do you like it and are excited to get started?
Do they intimidate you because of all the reading there is in the OOYCZ Guide?
Are you unsure that you can critique?
Please folks, let me hear your thoughts and have your questions if you have any!
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I like that it's titled Out Of Your Comfort Zone - very fitting, and also very good for learning. I've only skimmed the rules & may have a few questions as the challenge proceeds, but it looks like a good organizational plan.
A photograph is an artistic expression of life, captured one moment at a time . . .
http://bartlettphotoart.smugmug.com/
Welcome to the challenge board DitchDoc!
I do have a small question on the rules. What is considered the "challenge period"? Does it include the "instructions" phase as well as the "entry" phase or does the photo need to be taken only during the instruction phase? I guess I'm wondering if someone takes a photo and based upon the feedback received then makes more attempts, do all those attempts and tweaking need to be done before the 'entry' phase begins? I don't know if I explained this clearly or not, but maybe you get the idea.
Additional feedback/thoughts:
I love the name of this set of challenges. Very appropriate.
I don't really care if there are prizes or not, but some people will care. The prize doesn't have to be big, but if some small prize could be offered (like maybe some cool Smuggy swag like coffee mugs/tshirts/etc or a feature blurb in the SmugMug blog) more people might be encouraged to participate.
I like the idea of getting real feedback and critique on any images I post. I will admit to being apprehensive about giving it.
For what it's worth...
Sherry P.
Phil
"You don't take a photograph, you make it." ~Ansel Adams
Phil
Sorry for such simplistic question.
Phil
"You don't take a photograph, you make it." ~Ansel Adams
Phil
Just remember that when you start a thread, to keep all improvements and comments to that thread as you go along in the learning phase.
So I entered a new thread - "OOYCZ - Sewing Center" to submit an image. Let me know if that is what you were looking forward as posting title, posting content, etc.
Phil
"You don't take a photograph, you make it." ~Ansel Adams
Phil
Could we could come up with a handle that is more user friendly? Some folks suggested that "we" publicize the new challenges a bit more, and I'm not sure how people will respond to "OOYCZ" in a thread title. One suggestion would be to call them Dgrin Monthly Challenges with "out of your comfort zone" in the tagline or descriptor. Specific threads could be Monthly #1, Monthly #2, etc.
Personally, I would like to see Monthly #1 Still Life (or whatever the specific challenge of the month might be) in the official threads started by the moderator (JAG) and think people might be more likely to open those threads to see what it's all about.
The still life challenge is intriguing but not sure I will be able to play this month. A family member needs help with her baby while her back is out....
Thank you, JAG, and others who may have contributed to this new approach to the Dgrin challenges.
Gretchen
My SmugMug Galleries
Phil
"You don't take a photograph, you make it." ~Ansel Adams
Phil
Thank you for your comments. Actually, I thought long and hard about what to call the new challenges. In the past we have had Dgrin Sharp Shooters (DSS) and Last Photographer Standing (LPS) which were great when we had loads of people here. Those challenges were just reduced down to their initials and after a while, many didn't know exactly what the initials stood for but no one really cared. I think that the initials alone, make a person curious about it. Have you tried to pronounce OOYCZ (oo-ees-zee) as a word? Kind of like saying "Oo, easy" Challenges.
I figured if I put the challenge theme in the title, Like Challenge #1 Still Life, and a person who does not shoot Still Life as a normal routine (which would be a large portion of the photographers), then they might just not even open it because they figure its not their style of shooting. Thus they miss out on the explanation of why we are having the challenges in the first place.
If they see OOYCZ Challenge, they are more likely to open it to see what exactly it is. They know it will be a challenge, but when they read what the challenges are really about, stepping out of your comfort zone, they might be more likely to at least give it a try! At least that is what I am hoping for.
So for now, we will keep the name and see how it is. Nothing ever is set in stone, but lets just see where this takes us for now.
As for 'prizes' to sweeten and attract more to it, that will not be for now either. Lets just keep learning and bettering photography skills for free be the prize for now. We have so many different levels of skills and this community, if it works together, can be one of the best places on the web for learning. It will only work if everyone participates to the best of their own skill levels and help when they can or learn something new by stepping out and trying something new.
Baby steps are needed to build this community back to where it was a few years ago. Interaction with each other to build relationships of friendships will certainly be the gravy if this works!
Hi JAG, I guessed that you had given a lot of thought to all aspects of the new Dgrin challenges. I am fine with the name and everything staying the same. Just wanted to respond to your invitation to give input.
That's a good point. I was viewing this more along the lines of the technique assignments that Nikolai has moderated and thought titles might be a good draw.
Someone else must have asked about prizes?
Thanks again for initiating the new challenges.
Gretchen
My SmugMug Galleries
http://snaptx.smugmug.com/
Light is everything in life and photography.
Prizes don't matter to me, but I noticed that they seem to matter to a lot of people. That's the only reason I even mentioned it.
Sherry
With the way you have thought about this and have set it up in order to ensure critiques on the entries, this can certainly be a good learning experience, which in itself can be seen as the real prize here. But I think it would be hard to deny the fact that the Smugmug membership prizes were in fact a key distinguishing element of the Dgrin challenges and were acting as extra push/motivation for many of the participants to join the challenges, particularly when there were Mega Challenges (And frankly, it sure was one of the motivating factors both for myself and my wife when we first joined).
As such, I think it would really be great to at least add some sort of a Mega type challenges with Smugmug membership prizes again, if possible. That is, while each OOYCZ challenge will not have any prize, there will be a Mega OOYCZ, say, every 3 months or so, where only the top 5 or so winners of all the past OOYCZ challenges can participate, and where there would be some prizes, maybe not a lifetime account like we had with the previous Mega's, but, just a one-year Smugmug Business or even Standard account or something. Just my 2 cents
Do we have to enter the preliminary for comments in order to put a photo in the ENTRY?
Can the photo we put in ENTRY be a completely different photo from the ones submitted in the first two weeks?
I have about 14 ideas of things I could do - and they are all possible, but what I'm concerned about is whether I will be physically able to gather the objects and put them together for a photo. (This is partly, but not entirely because my husband has been remodeling the kitchen since the fall of 2012 and a lot of the kitchen stuff is in the DR and that has made the things in the DR inaccessible.) But I have plenty of other stuff even though I have given away truckloads of things to photographers who wanted props for Baby photography. (Actually the ladies did not come in a truck but an SUV but you know what I mean.)
Great idea! I'm looking forward to participating.
www.katetaylor.smugmug.com
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." Mark Twain
I didn't mean to ask whether we had to comment on other people's photos
It is strongly suggested that people start threads with their works in progress in order to receive feedback in the first phase. This is not going to be a requirement.
However, in the spirit of the challenges, the feedback and learning will help those who use it, improve greatly. As well as give more experienced photographers practice on things they might have forgotten or need more practice on.
It is up to the individuals, but keep in mind, there are many very experienced photographers that might help those who are willing to learn.
No editing restrictions other than it be all your own work or the challenge specifically states no editing. Never add anything such as tubes that you did not create or other photographers canned textures. They must be yours. I will be sure the rules state this. Thanks for the reminder.
EDIT: I have updated the rules to reflect the above.
You asked for critique, here's mine.
First thing, I had to search to find out what OOYCZ was. I'm already turned off when I don't know what I'm entering.
Next, it appears that this is a month long challenge. In todays time of instant gratification, you're having a month long challenge?
I don't think that's going to go over well.
To many rules. I'm not sure if I need to critique in the first round to enter the second round. It sounds as if I don't critique in
the second round, I can't vote. I don't know if I even read it right. I feel like I'm back in school and I'm being tested on what I read.
Voting, if I'm allowed to. I sounds as if you must vote for 3.
I guess that's ok, as long as there's, I don't know, at least 10 photos in the challenge?
The first few challenges that may be a challenge it's self.
Then for the final critique.
You want people to critique every image in the final before voting.
This will sway votes and cause some to feel unsure about entering again.
Photo "A" has critique's like, "You've really captured the mood of the challenge. Your choice of
colors and the way you arranged them is fantastic."
Photo "B" has the critique of "I really like the color you were able to get in the sky."
Obviously, the photographer of photo "B" needs the critique more than the photographer of photo "A"
They probably aren't going to get it.
I'll add to the fact that if there was more than 20 images, I wouldn't get into the finals for the fact
that I wouldn't want to write that many critiques.
I know you put a lot of thought into this, and I'm not saying that the idea is bad.
But I think some things will need to be changed at some point.
I hope I'm wrong, and things go well for you and folks that enter.
( the time frame thing is the most important thing. that's the reason I quite doing to mini's.
Two weeks to post, for the most part, archived images? Cmon. the last mini I entered, I had
forgot that I even entered it. good thing I didn't win. )
Basking in the shadows of yesterday's triumphs'.
davev, Thanks for your concerns. See my answers in Orange above.
I agree a little bit with some of the above, that it does seem to violate the KISS theory (keep it simple stupid). The instructions aren't that hard, but they are multifaceted, and I could imagine that could discourage new participants.
All my photo gear was boxed up for a while, so I didn't read it at first with an eye to really consider participating right now.
I worry a little bit that this rule "Only those who have an image entered to the Final thread will be able to critique the final images. All other replies or comments will be deleted. "
actually discourages critique, because (especially if you aren't around during the first stage), it's easier to critique images that are all in place, rather than through all the initial posts. I could go back to the individual posts and give my 2 cents, but I imagine those posts are a bit past their prime now.
Maybe next months I'll have more time to participate, and earlier. This seems like a lot of work for the mods!