*** AND THE OCTOBER WINNERS ARE... ***

[regnaD kciN]

A PERSONAL NOTE: While hosting this contest, I made every effort to run it in as scrupulously impartial a manner as possible. This not only extended to running the contest itself (keeping to strict start and finish times, grouping photos by order received), but refraining from posting in the "comments" thread about any of the entries (even though I wanted to do so), so as not to influence anyone's opinion. Similarly, when the contest rounds first went up, I waited to cast my own votes until several others had done so, so as not to give any entry the advantage of being the immediate "front-runner."

In my actions, I had to be as detached as possible...because, in terms of feelings, I was anything but. Only if paisley (to whom I've been married for fifteen years) had submitted one of the leading entries could I have been more emotionally caught-up in this contest.

You see, one of the entrants this time around is not only a dear friend, but a constant inspiration to me. If it wasn't for her knowledge, skill and generosity to someone who, at first, she barely knew, I would never have managed to return to filmmaking twenty years after giving it up. Similarly, it was her invitation, barely 18 months ago, that I join her on a shoot of the Skagit tulip fields (and directing me to this group shortly thereafter) that revived my long-dormant interest in still photography, eventually leading me to a new vocation. And these are only two of the innumerable ways this individual has changed my life for the better over the past five years.

This person was absent from the Photography Group and its contests for far too long, but made a spectacular return last month with Mountain View. At one point, during the lead-up to this month's contest, I wrote the following to her:

(I hope you'll be entering something, BTW -- nothing would make me happier than being able to announce you as the winner next time around.)

Well...I got my wish. :-) (The fact that she submitted such a great photo, of course, made it easy.)

It is with the greatest of pleasure that I announce the first-place finisher for October (and 16th overall winner of a DU Photo Contest)...

superconnected

...for her haunting and beautiful October Angels.



:yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party:


Second place goes to...

CC

...for her lovely "infrared" nature study, Winding Road (a photo that has grown on me every time I look at it).



:yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party:



Third place honors, and "best color photo" award, go to...

intheflow

...for her evocative Dogwood Path.



:applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party:


I would be remiss in not singling out graywarrior for "best contest debut" for her spare and mysterious Dark Passage.



:applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party:


And, since all four top finishers this month are female, I have to award the very unofficial "top photo by a male photographer" (not to mention "best use of humor") to Robb for Speed Trap.



:applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party:


Finally, I want to start a new tradition of the "Host's Award" -- in which the person running the contest can single out an entry that they think stands out above the competition. I'm awarding it to an image that, unaccountably, didn't make the finals, but which I thought was one of the very best in any DU contest so far: Trail Of Leaves, by Call Me Wesley.



:applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party: :bounce: :applause: :yourock: :party:


The final standings:

1st: superconnected
2nd: CC
3rd: intheflow
4th: graywarrior
5th: Robb
6th: (tie) Cobalt Violet and alfredo
8th: Mz Pip
9th: Lefty48197
10th: NV Whino

Congratulations to all! :woohoo:

By the way, in case anyone's interested, I went back over the old contest threads to put together a list of all the winners so far. This list includes two events (Hot Days of Summer and Extreme Processing) that were originally "challenges," but became official monthly contests when circumstances forced the postponement of the planned contest until the next month.

FOUR WINS
RagingInMiami

TWO WINS
Blue_In_AK
CC
GOPFighter
regnaD kciN

ONE WIN
94114_San_Francisco
algomas
bvar22
ConsAreLiars
F.Gordon
intheflow
JeffR
Mogster
PitbullTed
SOteric
superconnected

[JeffR]

1. Best winners announcement thread ever

And the host award is a brilliant idea.

This contest was just extraordinarily good. "October Angels" is one of the finest photographs to grace this forum, an absolutely beautiful work of art. Congratulations to superconnected, and of course to the runners-up and all the finalists.

And congratulations to the host. I really regret some of the nonsense that went on with the prelims, and wish I could undo it all, but the contest ran seamlessly and has to be the best I've seen as a participant or a lurker. Hell of a great job, regnaD kciN.
:toast:

[regnaD kciN]

3. Or at least the longest...

I started drafting that thread in the early morning hours, so I'd be ready to post it as soon as the contest ended. I thought I had it done, but then some more votes came in, and one photo overtook another for third place, and I had to rewrite that part of the post. During the last hour, I was constantly refreshing the thread, muttering to myself about how we better not get a flood of last-minute votes that would change the standings even more and force another wholesale rewrite.

(One amusing note: To make sure the formatting worked properly in both Firefox and IE, I set up a dummy thread in the Washington state group to "preview" the text until I got it right with both browsers. I had to be ultra-careful to always hit the "preview" button, and not accidentally click on "post message," or lots of Washingtonian DUers would be wondering just why they were getting a wrap-up thread for a photo contest they'd never heard of...and several hours before the contest was supposed to end!)

[JeffR]

6. You make it look so doggone effortless

Shouldn't be confessing your hosting secrets publicly!;)

[Cobalt Violet]

2. Congrats to all.

All super photos.

I feel honored that I even made the finals of this one.

[intheflow]

4. Wow!

The last time I checked, I was in 4th place. What a nice surprise to open this thread and see I had moved up to 3rd. No shame at all in my placement. In fact, I voted for "Winding Road." I would have voted for "October Angels" if the theme had been Religious Iconography. :) (Don't laugh, it's another one my favorite themes to shoot.)

:applause: Excellent work all around!! :applause:

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Excellent, regnaD...

I've been so f*cking busy here since our return from the southland that I didn't even find time to vote in prelims or finals, so I guess I can congratulate everyone. Beautiful photos, all. :yourock:

[Eurobabe]

7. Sigh...maybe we need a subset contest for us 'amateurs'

Congrats to the winners. CC your picture captures the essence of a path that brings pure joy.

OTOH, I feel like I will never win anything against folks who either have a gallery or have a gazillion years of experience. (Sorry for the sour grapes, it's just a little lonely out here sometimes.)

We started those comment threads awhile back and they languished. Why? They were invaluable for feedback, can't we get enough people interested in critiquing so the rest of us can learn? Either that or I am just going to have to bite the bullet and take a goddamn photography course.

I miss my mentor terribly, he is in Virginia. I guess I am going to have to buy a house near him so I can submit a winner. -48

[JeffR]

8. Trust your eye, is my humble advice

You know what you're doing. Just keep doing it. You have as much to teach as you do to learn, grasshopper.:)

[Eurobabe]

16. Love you Jeff

[JeffR]

9. And BTW

Your entry should have made the Finals, I think. The technical aspects were immaterial; it was an inspired interpretation of the theme. Keep at it. Full stop.

[regnaD kciN]

11. Who is a "professional" and who is an "amateur"...?

As far as I know, only Blue_In_AK and I offer our photos for sale, and the results I've gotten would probably convince the manager of my bank branch to classify me as an "amateur." :shrug:

And we all feel the way you do at one point or another. Seriously, a few nights ago, I was looking at superconnected's eventual winning entry and decided that I'd never done a single creative photo in my life and might as well give up on the whole thing. Another photographer here (and the one I'd consider the best in the group) had a similar reaction to a series I put up (which was one of my better shooting days, but certainly not superior to the work she turns out month after month) -- that "I might as well sell my camera and give up."

For whatever reason, at least some of us photographers have periods of really low self-belief. (I'm in the middle of a real bad one right now.) It's lonely for each of us at one time or another.

Would it help if I told you that I thought your new Malta windmill photo was one of the best images I've seen here? I would consider that a "professional" shot by any definition.
:applause:

We started those comment threads awhile back and they languished. Why? They were invaluable for feedback, can't we get enough people interested in critiquing so the rest of us can learn?

I must admit, I never took part in the roundtables. Why not? Because I still have dial-up, and having to wait a half-hour for a thread to load didn't appeal to me. (Even a contest submissions thread can be somewhat of an ordeal for my connection.) Anyway, I'm sorry I wasn't a part of them -- I think I probably could have learned a lot from contributing.

Either that or I am just going to have to bite the bullet and take a goddamn photography course.

Don't bother with a photography course, but you might want to consider some books. The best one I've found to start off with was Understanding Digital Photography by Bryan Peterson, since he covers both exposure and composition issues. But there are many other good sources, most of which I assume you can get sent to you in Germany. From what I've seen, you've got the talent -- you just need a bit of technique and more experience, which will come naturally.

[Eurobabe]

15. Thanks Reg, I was just feeling blue (or PMS'y) this AM

Needed the positive feedback :hug:

I meant no ill will towards anyone in this group, I think y'all (shout out for Virginia!) are super great photographers. I just hate competing in the contests against you!! LOL. I really think it would be so helpful if we tried again to get the critiquing threads up and running. :)

And yeah, part of it is my own fault, I have yet to READ THE MANUAL for my freakin' camera!!!

[regnaD kciN]

19. Well, at least you have PMS as an explanation...

...but I don't know what my problem is. ;-)

[Blue_In_AK]

17. And I've sold exactly TWO photos

so how professional does that make me? Haha. I'm only doing it (the "professional" thing) for the tax write-off, not because I think my photos are better than anybody else's. 45%er, you're doing great. keep up the good work, and don't get discouraged. All that really matters is that you get pleasure from creating something that YOU love. :hug:

[MissHoneychurch]

10. Congrats superconnected

And regna, I agree with you on Call Me Wesley's picture. I was as amazed that it didn't made the final round.

[Call Me Wesley]

12. Congratulations, all!

Excellent photography! :thumbsup: This is a great group!

And I'm especially honored to get the 'Host's Award.' :blush: Thank you!

I'm looking forward to the next contest.

[Robb]

13. This was such an incredible bunch of snaps

I think the "winning" has really so little to do with it... it's just astound to see the interpretations of the theme, the "eye" that's different that each one brings to this. That's what's so valuable about these things.

Although it makes me pleased, and maybe validates what I like in a picture, to see a great pic win. :toast:

[NashVegas]

14. This One Was My Pick

When I looked at that photo, I wanted to know:

who was that guy?
what was he doing there?
what was the significance of the place/placename?

In other words, besides it having great composition (in spite of the flaw in the skin tone), I wanted to know the story behind that photo. Excellently done.

[superconnected]

18. Thanks Regnad for a very well run contest!

Winding road was my favorite of the bunch but there were several more that I liked quite a bit, including vandam path, dark passage, and troll bridge. I was very upset that the end of the rainbow amish one didn't make the finals. I really liked that photo, and I was sad Fgordons, and the end of a long day didn't make the finals either. Both had their own "style".

Small rant: I don't believe the lounge has any integrity to judge photos. Were they judging paintings I'd expect them to vote down a de vinci for a kinkade. It takes a certian kind of person to hang out in the lounge. I just don't give them that much credit for integrity - especially judging art. Heck, I won this time and I still don't trust them.

So to the ppl who didn't win or didn't make the finals, don't be upset. It's no real reflection on the quality of your photo.

Again thanks for hosting the contest Regnad. You do beyond a great job! The photo group has always been my favorit place on du. This group shows me beauty. More people should stop in here. People like Regnad make it great.

[F.Gordon]

20. Congrats!!! What an excellent bunch of photos

superconnected.... I remember that photo. Didn't you also have a couple pics of the "angels" in a cemetery?

Congrats to you and everyone that entered. There was amazing creative diversity with a "simple" theme.

[regnaD kciN]

21. Actually, she did a whole "angels" series...

...all of which were great. But it was this one that made me go :wow: the first time I saw it, several years ago.

Even then, I was sure it was destined to be a contest-winner. The only questions were "which contest?" and "when?" I just consider it fortunate that it turned out to be a contest where I didn't have an entry that would get its gluteus maximus kicked by it. ;-)

[superconnected]

22. yep, I took my entry in Oct of 03, with angels at a beach.

I called it my October Angels Collection. Then I took March 04 photos of Angels at a cemetary - My March Angels collection.

Link to the angels pics I took - note these are informal pics I took with my nieces on a whim one day. I posted here because the March angels pics were ruined by a mysterious haze that showed up and went away after the photo shoot. Never had it again.
http://www.burstinguniverse.com/a/

This is my actual photo site that has pics I picked from the collections
http://www.burstinguniverse.com/pic/

looking back at them, boy did I have a terrible program that was compressing them down at the time. I should take the originals and re-scale them down now that I have decent tools.

[regnaD kciN]

23. Actually, I believe the proper URL for those photos...

...is here.

BTW, the fourth of the photos on that page reminds me of the "Little Mermaid" statue in Copenhagen.

[superconnected]

24. you've said that before and I've still never seen the copenhagen

mermaid in a pic.

[regnaD kciN]

25. Here it is...

...at this link. Not the greatest photo, but enough to get the idea.

[JeffR]

26. Just been browsing through the galleries

And all I can say is WOW.

[F.Gordon]

32. Excellent series !!!

And yes, I also remember the mystery haze photos. You never had it happen again??

I'll chalk it up to another strange incident in the Haunted Photography Group.
:scared:

[Mz Pip]

27. I sell my photos

Just started pursuing this more seriously the past year. This last weekend I did the Fort Mason Open Studios in San Francisco and did pretty well - sold several prints and had lots of positive feedback.

I am just starting to deal with the business side of art. It's one thing to make art; it's another thing entirely to market it. I need to set up a website and start taking plastic. That all kind of overwhlems me!

Lots of talented people on DU. IT's inspirational!

Mz Pip
:dem:

[regnaD kciN]

28. Web sites are easy...

...art shows are hard. At least, that's been my experience. Congrats on selling well at one of them!

[jhain]

29. Thanks for all your time!

They were all so womderful. I just LOVE this action- the contests and being able to see everyone's photos this way!
-Jude

[alfredo]

30. Terrific contest, terrific winner

It was so good. I guess many of us vote for our own picture, that is understandable. Nobody wants to be humiliated. But the winner was so good, I bet some of us voted for it instead of our own. I knew I wasn't going to win, and it didn't really matter whether I did or not. I saw excellence and had no choice but to cast my vote for it. Way to go Super Connected!!!

[graywarrior]

31. Thanks, regnaD kciN!

And thanks everyone who voted. This was my first attempt and it really encouraged me to continue on this "path." Dark Passage was kind of an accident, although I did take advantage of the light. It was taken in the tunnel that goes under the road from the parking lot at Ellis Falls to the Falls on Route 16 in Pinkham Notch NH. Beats me what setting I had, but I took several other photo's of the same tunnel and got much different results.

I expect I will learn a lot from this group if I hang around long enough.

Thanks to those who voted for mine. It's an honor.
GW

[Whoa_Nelly]

33. Congratulations all!

All hauntingly evocative photos!! :toast:

Have been offline a lot lately due to moving...AGAIN! But, this time it's a winner! A pool, nice yard for the doggie, and the 1700 sq. ft. house belongs to my son who just bought another home around the corner. Am now within walking distance of son, DIL and my two sweet grandchildren :woohoo:

Again...Wonderful contest and congrats to all!

[CC]

34. I loved Angels

and it won hands down though must admit I voted for Speed Trap because beyond the great photography and juxtaposition it had a memory element for me. This was a hard contest for voting, all the pics were great and had their own creative, emotional appeal but with all the things that came up had to be hard to host. Great job Reg.!!!!!
I am in kitchen hell still though still browse the pics for relief. POST MORE PICS PLEASE. So far no fall here, most trees are still green,the few that turned the wind blew away, my flowers are still blooming and my trees are still green. Global warming anyone?

[WePurrsevere]

35. Congrats to all winners... the Angels truly was wonderfully done and

well deserving of the top spot.

When I entered I knew I wouldn't have a snowball's chance against many here but I wanted to learn and hopefully I'll be able to improve on my own pics. :)