About The Last Photographer Standing Guest Judges

Shay Stephens

As you know, the Last Photographer Standing contest is now underway. We planned on introducing interesting and compelling contest themes for the qualifying rounds that should stimulate the imagination.

But we also plan on making the judging more interesting too. Guest judges will be invited from the Dgrin membership to lend their eye and talent in selecting who will qualify to compete in the semifinals. A guest judge will not be eligible to enter the qualifying round they are judging, but they are not disqualified from entering any other qualifying round, semifinal, or Grand Finale. And Guest Judges will be announced at the start of each contest so you all will know what your photos will be up against.

A guest judge will have to be one who is a visual person. They will have posted photos they have taken that show an eye for the creative, the beautiful, the quirky, or even offbeat. Whatever talent they have, it will be known by their photos.

A visual person speaks with images. And so, anyone who does not have an avatar to complement their member name will probably not be chosen as a judge to lend their talents, though there may be a few exceptions. So if you would like to be considered to be a guest judge, get yourself an avatar asap.

Guest judges are selected by invitation only. There is no way become a guest judge other than being invited. Asking to be invited will most likely disqualify you. So don't ask! Trying to weasel ones way into being a guest judge is a sure way to never be chosen.

The guest judges for the first contest are nearly chosen and will be announced soon in the contest thread. Guest judges are only chosen one contest out, so while most of the judges are chosen for the second contest, none are selected for the third. That will wait until after the end of the first contest.

We'll see you in the Last Photographer Standing contest!

DavidTO

Shay Stephens wrote:

Trying to weasel ones way into being a guest judge is a sure way to never be chosen.

Awesome. Can I be a judge?

DoctorIt

Oh oh oh pick me! pick me!!

urbanaries

Shay-

legitimate question here....Why would you reveal the identity of the guest judges before a given round is complete? For example, if I knew Erik was a judge, I'd skew my entry toward images in vehicles with phalanges in orifices.

But seriously.

Lynne

Shay Stephens

urbanaries wrote:

Shay-

legitimate question here....Why would you reveal the identity of the guest judges before a given round is complete? For example, if I knew Erik was a judge, I'd skew my entry toward images in vehicles with phalanges in orifices.

But seriously.

Lynne

Exactly! It is going to make you stretch in ways you may not have thought to try before. When the judging is anonymous, you only have yourself to help in deciding a possible direction to take a photo. But if you know so-and-so is going to be judging it, you may just take it up a notch, or try something you think they might like, or in some other way do something interesting.

It's kind of like in the real world. You might get a job from a client with a known desire for a certain look, concept, or maybe they just want to be surprised? Being able to tailor a photo that might garner more attention is a great skill to hone.

But it still is not going to be easy, judges are selected from differing views and sensibilities. Some may be classical, some edgy, some quirky. But all of them have a great eye, and they all will be judging your photo. How are you going to make it past them? Do great work! Great work leads to success in nearly every endeavor, this contest will help anyone get better and reach greater heights.

urbanaries

Shay Stephens wrote:

Exactly! It is going to make you stretch in ways you may not have thought to try before. When the judging is anonymous, you only have yourself to help in deciding a possible direction to take a photo. But if you know so-and-so is going to be judging it, you may just take it up a notch, or try something you think they might like, or in some other way do something interesting.

It's kind of like in the real world. You might get a job from a client with a known desire for a certain look, concept, or maybe they just want to be surprised? Being able to tailor a photo that might garner more attention is a great skill to hone.

But it still is not going to be easy, judges are selected from differing views and sensibilities. Some may be classical, some edgy, some quirky. But all of them have a great eye, and they all will be judging your photo. How are you going to make it past them? Do great work! Great work leads to success in nearly every endeavor, this contest will help anyone get better and reach greater heights.

You have put a lot of thought into this, and it's really exciting. Great response, makes total sense.

Angelo

urbanaries wrote:

Shay-

legitimate question here....Why would you reveal the identity of the guest judges before a given round is complete? For example, if I knew Erik was a judge, I'd skew my entry toward images in vehicles with phalanges in orifices.

But seriously.

Lynne

I hope you never skew my phalanges. I'm just saying!

KvPhoto

urbanaries wrote:

Shay-

legitimate question here....Why would you reveal the identity of the guest judges before a given round is complete? For example, if I knew Erik was a judge, I'd skew my entry toward images in vehicles with phalanges in orifices.

But seriously.

Lynne

OH No! I don't know everyone's 'specialty' yet!

Angelo

KvPhoto wrote:

OH No! I don't know everyone's 'specialty' yet!

Don't fret. There will be more than one judge and human nature dictates they will have different tastes.

KvPhoto

Angelo wrote:

Don't fret. There will be more than one judge and human nature dictates they will have different tastes.

Thanks Angelo!

urbanaries

KvPhoto wrote:

OH No! I don't know everyone's 'specialty' yet!

well judging from eriks [doctorIt] avatar, he quite enjoys digging in his nose! pretty easy to figure out.

doesn't it gross anyone else out?

ETA: Actually, it makes me laugh, and think of this commercial.

imax

A Question About This
Just out of curiosity, how many judges will be used for each qualifying round? (If it's in the rules somewhere my apologies for missing it)

Joe

Shay Stephens

imax wrote:

Just out of curiosity, how many judges will be used for each qualifying round? (If it's in the rules somewhere my apologies for missing it)

Joe

It's not in the rules, but it should be more or less around 6. I will be trying to pull from a broad range of artistic talent and temperment. Hopfully that will broaden the variety and increase the quality of the finalists that move on to the semifinals.

Prezwoodz

Sounds fair enough.

Shay Stephens

One more thing I would like to mention. I will be looking for guest judges based on artistic talent, not based on dgrin post counts. So if you just joined and only have a few posts under your belt, but a rockin gallery, or otherwise evident talent, you are eligible.

If you are currently not signed up to dgrin but think you might have the chops to be a judge, sign up and make a post or two to get on the radar. You don't have to be a dgrin veteran to be called to judge

Shay Stephens

What about secret judges?
There have been suggestions to keep the identity of the judges secret until the qualifying round ends. Here is a sample request:

I like the idea of not knowing who they are ahead of time. It might help participants from trying to guess what the judges will like as opposed to shooting what their heart tells them too.

Having secret judges up to the last is a good and fun idea, and I have been tempted to do so. But the other part of me says that when someone hires you to shoot "xyz", you know who you have to empress. You can't just shoot purely for your own pleasure.

That is one of the aspects of the contest that separates it from the rest. It is kind of a job training, if you will, to prime the participants for the business world of photography and not simply a purely artistic endeavor. The realization that your work has to satisfy and please more than just yourself is a powerful lesson and gives one a leg up in the business.

In the future, when you are hired by "Frank's Fantastic Fans" to shoot "xyz", you will know Frank, and you will know he likes crazy colors and you are going to have to incorporate some of that into the work you produce if you want Frank to be happy with the results. And you will be able to do so because the illusion that you can shoot any old way you please will have long ago been lost because of your participation in the Last Photographer Standing contest and the panel of judges that you know will be judging your work

Tentacion

If anything, this first Semi-Final round is a Pioneer Round for

the future ones to come...at least the non-qualifiers will be able to see what may be in store for them in the next Semi. :duel

This is going to be "Velllllllyyyy Interestink" :seamus

I'm Routin for all of you
Donna