Subject: Extreme
Closing date: Tuesday 9th January
Number of entries per member: unlimited
Eligibility: Prize will ONLY be sent to UK address
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Hey these Rapid Fires are working really well - we have had some great pictures in our previous competitions. Now it's time for something a little more challenging.
The theme this time is “EXTREME” - anything taken to excess or where something has just gone a little too far.
Here are some ideas:
- Snowboarding, skateboarding, any extreme sport.
- Extreme decorations - have your neighbours gone just a little overboard with their Christmas lights?
- The morning after - did you go in for some extreme celebrating? Did a friend? (Hint: get their permission before you post a picture of them in a tutu…)
- Extreme close ups - though to stop this being a macro flower fest - no flowers!!
- Or why not go mad and show us an extreme Photoshop technique you've been dying to practise?
- Anything else that you can link even tenuously to the theme “extreme” - but no extreme weather! We had some great ones in the last competition.
As usual we will only be rejecting pictures if they breach site decency rules so feel free to interpret the theme how you like/
The Rules
The picture must be taken by you between NOW and the closing date of the competition - no trawling through your archives, no recycling stuff. Get out there and take some pictures.
We've set up a special gallery called “* EXTREMECOMP” (it should be the first choice in the bottom dropdown). Submit your pictures to that gallery for inclusion in the competition. These pictures will be approved as normal but people won't be able to vote on them until the close of the competition. Enter as many times as you like.
Once the competition closes, the pictures will go on display and voting will be open for one week. Every member gets to vote on all the pictures except their own from 1 - 5. You could probably vote for your own pictures but (1) that would be sad and (2) we'd disqualify you.
Competition is open for submission now and all pictures must be submitted by 9 am Tuesday 9th January - that gives you all Christmas and all New Year to do something extreme. Voting will then open and the winner will be announced on Monday 8th January.
Due to the nature of the prize we will only post it to an address in the UK. People from other countries are free to enter and could be crowned “winner” but the prize will be sent to the highest placed entrant with a UK address.
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 “extreme” to you will be allowed. 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 an “extreme” picture you may not do so well in the competition.
The prize
Intelligence Direct love extreme stuff. I have a huge banner that they printed for me from a D70 snap and the love printing things big. That's why they are sponsoring this competition. The prize is an extremely large print - a 30 inch x 20 inch stretched canvas print of your entry to hang on the wall.
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 “weather”? Can you imagine why the photographer thought they did? If not then consider just not voting on these. Have a look at the top of this article for some things I think should be allowed in - it's pretty broad. 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 please 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? Well, that and to win cool prizes.
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