Inspiration:
Close Up,
Flower,
Cables,
Bee,
Pumps,
Portrait and
Ant
The Theme:
It's time for the second round of our Photographer of the Year competition - and this time the theme is 'Close Up'.
What you need to know:
The special rules. Enter as many times as you like by posting your pics to the "POTY: Round 2" gallery. However, the top 3 will not be awarded to the same photographer - the top 3 entries will be made up of 3 images from different photographers. The editor's decision is final.
Entries are open now and close Monday 23rd April. All pictures must be taken between 1st March 2007 and 23rd April 2007. If there's any doubt about your picture's eligibility then we may ask you to prove it.
Whadaya mean Close Up?
We are not calling this a macro competition - a guideline would be any shot that's taken closer than you would normally look at something. There are some great articles on the site to get you going - check out On Location in the Lounge for some simple ideas or learn how to build a Light Tent - we'll be adding somoe more helpful articles through the month.
One very important note: it's spring and we're asking you to take close up pictures. We're going to get a lot of flowers. Now there's nothing bad in that - the reason we get so many is that they make a great close up subject. This is just a gentle warning that if you submit a flower picture it's probably going to have to be absolutely stunning to do well in the competition. My advice would be
- Make it the most stunning flower shot you've ever taken OR
- Include something else in the shot to lift it above the competition OR
- Get creative and shoot something else!
The Prizes:
Well we thought why give away 1 when you can give away 3? That's right, the top 3 will take away a prize.
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Third place - A Kata R-103 camera backpack worth £169.
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Second place - A Kata HB-207 camera backpack worth £229. - That's not a cheap bag. There's a reason for that - it's really very, very good.
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First place - A brand spanking new Olympus E-400 Double Zoom DSLR kit fresh off the shelf! - That's worth a staggering £700 and comes with:
the ED 14-42mm 1:3-5.6 lens, AND
the ED 40-150mm 1:4.0-5.6 lens!Don't even try to pretend you don't want it!
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Guidelines for voting
Here are my usual guidelines for voting. Note that we will not be disqualifying any picture on content (unless it's too rude). So yeah, people can submit black and whites. It's down to the voters to decide.
Remember that you don't have to enter to vote - any member can vote. But if you didn't enter then you have no chance of our top prize - 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 "colour"? 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?
