***August Contest Comment Thread***

[bluesbassman]

Comment on the photos found here.

[mnhtnbb]

1. I'm in...

after changing my mind 5 or 6 times!

the full text of the poem by William Blake:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

[bluesbassman]

2. Beautiful photo!

Love the poem that inspired the entry and your application of the theme. Well done!

[mnhtnbb]

5. Thanks!

Those particular tigers reside in the Berlin Zoo.

[bluesbassman]

3. Great shot Mira!

And yes, Xenia sure does!

[Mira]

4. Thanks! That was yesterday

in the German forest.
I have other photos of this gorgeous moss and these rocks. But Xenia's eyes lit up so much when I said I would use hers....

I will show some of the others later, after the contest probably, and when I'm back home.

[elleng]

6. NO WAY I could compete with any of those already posted!!!

[Solly Mack]

7. Superb entries!!!

[Earth_First]

8. Great entries so far...

1/3 of the way there towards a full slate!

[bluesbassman]

9. Wonderful entries so far!

These are some fine interpretations of "august"!

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. Mz Pip

Breathtaking! Absolutely stunning!

[Mz Pip]

11. Thank you!

Yosemite is one of those magical places that shoots itself. I'm not sure it's possible to take a bad picture there.

[alfredo]

34. There's not much "grand" in my neck of the woods, it's adequate at best.

[Curmudgeoness]

12. Well, I'm in this one.

I had so many photos that actually fit this category, it was hard to choose which to use. I usually have no inspiration.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Oh, wow, GermanWatcher, what a sight that must have been!

Fabulous shot.

Welcome to the Photography Group and DU!

[GermanWatcher]

14. Thank you

Thanks for the welcome! And yeah, it was awesome... two humpback whales putting on a show for about half an hour! The only thing missing were triple somersaults!

[Mira]

15. Germanwatcher: with your name

you stole my current obsession. LOL

I'm in Germany, since a month ago, (heading home in a few days) and I'm watching these Germans like a hawk. How they defy $ 9 a gallon gas by traveling on bikes in a country that grants the status of a car to a cyclist, and rent cars short term if necessary. How they recycle, and how laws are passed to force corporations to aid in the recycling or else.
And much else I"m watching, most of it is then followed by "face-palm" why the hell can't we do this.
And then I remember Republican obstruction to anything that is logical, progressive and effin' necessary for the survival of our children because they let their brains dwindle to where they can't wrap around a damn thing.

Anyway:
You sure saw an awesome sight! I welcome you to the photo group, and am happy you submitted something so awesome most of us will never see it.

[GermanWatcher]

16. Watching Germany from the inside

Thanks a lot, Mira. And thank you also for all the nice things you said about us Germans... mostly true, but, man, have we got some dark sides, too....
A lot of the subjects you touched were unthinkable just a few years ago. I´ve been told in the beginning of the 1990s that the introduction of unleaded fuel would surely cause the economy to collapse. Well, seems we got through that okay. Giving up nuclear energy took a major catastrophe for our blockheads to understand the risk – so, it´s an uphill fight here, too. And the list goes on...
Whereabouts are you in Germany? Perhaps I´ve got one or two good addresses.

[Mira]

17. I'm in Karlruhe. Flat as a pancake. And it's summer. The bikes are legion.

I'm only here for a couple more days. I had to come here to bury my Mother.
I cry and cry.

But I'll be back.
Home City: Augsburg

[GermanWatcher]

18. Oh, so sorry.

My condolences, Mira. You´ll never forget, but the pain grows more distant with time.
Only thing I know in Karlsruhe is the Kyudo dojo...
I´m from Munich.

[Whoa_Nelly]

19. Johnny NoShoes

Your photo fills the theme here more than any I've seen so far. Excellent photo!
Where were you when you took this?

[Johnny Noshoes]

37. Thanks...

It was taken at the Bronx Zoo - through glass. It was the gorilla habitat. It is a reasonably large area that they get to roam around in. I think the glass is more to protect them from us.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

20. Is it just me

or does it seem to be taking longer to fill the submission thread?

[bluesbassman]

21. No, I've noticed it also the last few contests.

Can't remember when we've had a full 30 submissions either.

On the plus side, the submissions we have been getting are outstanding!

[Mira]

22. We always had 30 submissions

when the names of those voting were not open for inspection.
Always.
(I'm almost sure of this, others may know more)
They filled up within a couple of days, or three.

With the advent of DU3 we could not do contests for more than a half a year, and when polling was re-instated it was no longer secret.
Since our contests are in fun but nevertheless a bit competitive, this was perceived as an intrusion into our privacy, and submissions became more scarce.

Our dislike for the polls being open is palpable. I have had voters who are not photographers also tell me that they no longer vote in the contests because they don't want their friends who submit photos to know who they voted for.

In general, our requests to have this feature turned off for photo polls has been summarily ignored by those who have the power to show us some respect.

As a result our contests have suffered a lot of participation in the submissions, and in the voting.

[Blue_In_AK]

23. That about sums it up, Mira.

The nonanonymity of poll votes, in ALL cases - not just these photo contests - is a really stupid feature. I'm not sure what Skinner, et al., were thinking when they set it up that way. I generally skip all the polls now and always vote for myself, just on principle.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

24. I wanted to tell you how much I like your entry!

It is stunning!

[Blue_In_AK]

25. Thanks, Peggy.

It's from our trip to Southeast AK last May. This is somewhere between Haines and Juneau.

[Mira]

26. I've been adamant on this subject from the start. And then said I was giving up.

But scars itch

What is so sad is that we really were not heard and got no feedback except "No" to our repeated requests.
I'd say we disband and not have contests or have a big general poll on the subject, but I feel our contribution is so discounted that it does not matter.
So, while we still have some of the former fun, I guess we will stumble along.

[CrispyQ]

28. Blue, your photo is stunning. -nt

[Blue_In_AK]

30. Thanks. :)

[Mz Pip]

27. I agree.

I think since the new DU3, I've maybe voted in two photo contests. It really shouldn't be that hard to go back to anonymous polls and I don't understand the rational for having the votes public. It seems to defeat the whole purpose of polling.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

29. I'm lost here Mira.

Do you mean that the photographers are checking to see who voted for them and people don't want to be revealed? Wow, I've never even thought of looking to see who voted for my photo. I mean you can't really rely on this kind of thing as a gauge for the quality of the image. I'm willing to bet if the submitters had their own vote the results would differ greatly from the vote of the general DU'er.

[mnhtnbb]

31. It doesn't bother me at all that polls identify voters. Not at all.

I wonder, though, if it wouldn't be more fun to have a full count of 30 photos every time
and why, if 30 hadn't been entered by, say, 5 days of submissions being open, that if the person
running the contest wants to leave entries up for a full week to allow photographers
to make a second submission during those last 2 days.

I often can't decide between two photos and it might be fun feedback
to see how DU'ers decide between 2 different photos from the same
photographer.

[Mz Pip]

32. I like that idea.

Seems like a good solution to the problem.

[Mira]

33. I may be wrong but I think you have not participated when the votes were private

The difference then and now is actually palpable.
But I like your idea. I'd probably have two in there lots of times. LOL. Choices are hard to make.
Overall it means we are trying to find ways to preserve something that once worked well and got torpedoed.
And it's not fair in any stretch of my imagination to have to do that. Unless we just don't matter.

[mnhtnbb]

36. You are not wrong.

I've only been participating with the Photography group for about a year.

I have come and gone from DU over time (and I'm not sure my member since date is right because I seem to
remember participating back in the Howard Dean days of 2003/4)--and never really paid attention to how
the polls were done previously. I pretty much stay out of GD and Politics, and spend most
of my time on DU here, in the Lounge, and a couple of other groups.

That said, there are polls that people put up which I don't vote in because I wouldn't want
a record of how I voted, but to vote on photos it doesn't bother me. Maybe it's a matter
of principle that people don't want their identity known on ANY poll? If that's the case,
then the Admins definitely ought to find a way to return polls to anonymity. Have other groups
on DU chimed in on the polls issue? If they refuse, then, from a practical matter of offering 30 photos
for every contest (is there some significance to the number 30?) we might want to figure
a way (by increasing the # of photos any one photographer could enter) to get to that number.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. I like that idea, too.