Inspiration:
Lightning,
Blue room,
Great Light,
Dark side of the moon and
A glass of white
Time for the very first round of our first Photographer of the Year competition.
There are 3 things you need to know.
- The Prize. Imagine you could just walk down to the camera store and pick anything you like. That's what you win in round 1! Even better you can do it from your bed if you want (and have en suite internet access...).
£200 of vouchers from Park Cameras. Browse Park's rather gorgeous website, choose whatever you want for up to £200 and it's yours.
- The special rules. Enter as many times as you like by posting your pics to the "POTY: Round 1" gallery. Entries are open now and close at midnight on Wednesday 28th February. All pictures must be taken between 1st February 2007 and 28th February 2007. If there's any doubt about your picture's eligibility then we may ask you to prove it.
- The theme: Light and Dark.
The theme of this competition is Light and Dark". That means any picture where light or the absence of light makes the image is eligible. I've produced some guidelines for voting. People voting on your pictures don't have to stick to these but it shows the way we want to go with this competition.
When voting is open, feel free to talk about your own or anyone else's pictures in the forums but if you start trying to rig the vote, well, we'll probably spot that!
Finally, the subject is up to you - anything that says light and dark" to you. Pictures will not be rejected on subject matter (unless they break the site's decency rules) but if you have to explain why it's a weather" picture you may not do so well in the competition.
Whadaya mean Light and Dark?
There are plenty of technique articles on the site to get you started. We've been running some articles on studio photography lately and you may think Light and Dark" means rushing into a studio and setting up 5 lights. Well, it could do!
Maybe you could go On location in the lounge" and set up your ideal miniature shoot with total control of the lighting.
Don't forget the dark" side though! How about shooting the night fantastic or photographing fireworks (Chinese New Year is February 18th!) or even experimenting at painting with light.
Or maybe you just choose a picture where the light says it all. There's some inspiration at the top of this article - just click through each of the images.
The prize
It's up to you. You get £200 to spend either online at ParkCameras or in one of their stores. You could choose a compact camera, an underwater housing for your camera, a tripod, a bag, more memory, a printer, a flashgun - or any combination of these. And if you want to buy something that costs more than £200 then I'm sure Park will be happy for you to pay the extra.
Guidelines for voting
As always we are keeping the rules simple on this one. However, I thought I'd give some guidelines for voting. They are right here on the competition announcement page so that people who enter can bear them in mind when creating their prize winning images.
Remember that you don't have to enter to vote - any member can vote. But if you didn't enter I bet you find a shot where you go I could have done better than that" - why not enter the next one?
- Look through and see if there are any that just don't fit the subject to you. Do they say light and dark"? Can you imagine why the photographer thought they did? If not then consider just not voting on these. If the picture doesn't fit that then don't give it one star, just don't vote on it.
- Have a glance at all the entries and decide on the ones that leap out and make you go wow". Think about giving these 5 stars (you can give 5 stars to as many pictures as you like but obviously it makes no sense to give them all 5!)
- Look at the rest and judge them by your own criteria. Do you demand that shots are perfectly exposed and razor sharp? Fine, mark them accordingly. Do you give more weight to the subject or what the photographer was trying to do? Cool then give high marks where it's appropriate. Different people rate different attributes but with an active community like this everything will balance out.
- If you really think a picture fits the subject but has no merit whatsoever then give it one star. But why not take the time to explain why you did it? If you find yourself giving more than 3 pictures one star then you really need to start a thread explaining how you think they can be improved? It's very dispiriting for the entrants just to get low marks and no clues - please help them out so they can be better next time. Isn't that why we're all here?
