Since the topic has been brought up in the current contest, I figured I'd get the ball rolling with my thoughts on the contest themes for next year. The quality of the photos submitted this year has gotten increasingly better with each contest. I hope most people agree. To that end, I think we should think about having contests that really challenge us and raise the bar, while still allowing us to have fun with it.
Here are my contest ideas:
I know I have other ideas, and I'll add them later.
Yes, these ideas aren't the common run-of-the-mill snapshots that everyone takes; but I think that's the point we've come to, which is a great thing. No, everyone probably won't have an entry for every contest, but that's fine. But by publishing the list at the start of the year, it can be printed out and taken when going to the parks so we can look for new shots for the contests.
In addition, I think that some post-shot adjustments made to the image in a photo editing program be allowed as long as the modification is applied to the whole image. This includes levels, conversion to black and white, hue/saturation, sizing/rotating, curves and cropping. This is common editing used to clean up an image. If there's a question about an image, the original image (without modification) can be submitted to the moderator for comparison to ensure that heavy modifications weren't done to the submitted image.
Just my brainstorming; please feel free to agree or disagree. I am thrilled that the contests have come so far and constantly make me think about the shots I take when I'm at the resort. I want to thank everyone for raising the bar for me and forcing me to go out and try to improve my photography techniques.
Here are my contest ideas:
- Theme park contests without a picture of the "icon" (e.g.: Magic Kingdom contest without pictures of Cinderella Castle)
- Character Abstract
- Lines
- Motion
- Neon
- Rain
- Special Event contests (Flower and Garden, Star Wars Weekends, Food and Wine, MNSSHP, MVMCP, ESPN Weekend, etc.)
- Contests for each of the lands and/or major attractions in each of the parks
- And of course we should bring over the contests that were so successful this year (nighttime, signage, Disney icons, rides, etc.).
I know I have other ideas, and I'll add them later.
Yes, these ideas aren't the common run-of-the-mill snapshots that everyone takes; but I think that's the point we've come to, which is a great thing. No, everyone probably won't have an entry for every contest, but that's fine. But by publishing the list at the start of the year, it can be printed out and taken when going to the parks so we can look for new shots for the contests.
In addition, I think that some post-shot adjustments made to the image in a photo editing program be allowed as long as the modification is applied to the whole image. This includes levels, conversion to black and white, hue/saturation, sizing/rotating, curves and cropping. This is common editing used to clean up an image. If there's a question about an image, the original image (without modification) can be submitted to the moderator for comparison to ensure that heavy modifications weren't done to the submitted image.
Just my brainstorming; please feel free to agree or disagree. I am thrilled that the contests have come so far and constantly make me think about the shots I take when I'm at the resort. I want to thank everyone for raising the bar for me and forcing me to go out and try to improve my photography techniques.
