2012 Photo of the Year Competitions Now Open

[Son of a Beach]

The photo of the year competitions for photos taken in 2012 are now open. As usual, the preliminary competitions are open to entries for the following categories:

• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Water
• Why I Walk

There are separate competitions for Tasmania and Australia.

These preliminary competitions will close to entries on the 16th of March.

To enter, click on the link to the competition(s) you wish to enter on the photo competitions home page at:

http://bushwalk.com/photocomp/

[stepbystep]

Hey Nick

I have real problems with this rule

Same (or similar) photo must not have been entered in any other site photo competitions (eg, must not have already been entered in one of the monthly photo competitions)

If it's the best photo you have taken, it's the best you've taken, fullstop. Pretty counter-intuitive it can't be entered in the 'Photo of the Year'.

Please drop this rule.

[eggs]

Unless the photo is a real stunner and all the others are shoddy, I suspect that a little reflection might diminish your sense of "full-stop".
The one thing I notice about these competitions is the highly variable nature of what others consider a good photo.
And that leads me to reflect on the number of times I have ummed and erred over what to put in, and after making a selection, the voters pile onto a shot similar to the one I rejected, while my selection languishes?? Meh - what do I know about what people will like on the day?

With such a low number of voters, I don't think its worth getting too edgy about the rules.
In the context of the different categories as a forerunner to the one "photo of the year" , it makes sense to make the selections from a fresh run, rather than reruns.

[forest]

So can photo's from NZ be entered into this comp ??

[Son of a Beach]

Hey Nick

I have real problems with this rule

Same (or similar) photo must not have been entered in any other site photo competitions (eg, must not have already been entered in one of the monthly photo competitions)

If it's the best photo you have taken, it's the best you've taken, fullstop. Pretty counter-intuitive it can't be entered in the 'Photo of the Year'.

Please drop this rule.

If it has already been entered into a monthly competition, and didn't win that competition then it isn't really a contender for photo of the year. If it did win that monthly competition, then it will be automatically entered into the photo of the year grand final.

Ie, if you've already entered it into a monthly competition, then you've effectively already entered it into the photo of the year.

Or another way to look at it... each of the monthly competitions is a preliminary round for the photo of the year competition. You can't enter the same photo in more than one of the preliminary competitions.

[Son of a Beach]

So can photo's from NZ be entered into this comp ??

Check the competition rules (on the entry page of each competition). For the Australia competitions it says, "The primary subject of the photo should be in Australia or New Zealand".

[stepbystep]

If it has already been entered into a monthly competition, and didn't win that competition then it isn't really a contender for photo of the year.

That's subjective, tastes change. No harm in dropping the rule then is there?

[Son of a Beach]

If it has already been entered into a monthly competition, and didn't win that competition then it isn't really a contender for photo of the year.

That's subjective, tastes change. No harm in dropping the rule then is there?

As stated earlier, it doesn't make sense (in my opinion) to enter the same photo into multiple preliminary competitions. In any case, it wouldn't be appropriate to change the rule at this stage. If you really want it changed, we would have to have a wider discussion about it before the 2013 non-monthly competitions.

I don't think it would be good to have somebody entering a photo of a wallaby drinking from a frozen lake in both the "Water" and the "Animal" preliminaries. Similarly, I don't think it should be in the "August" and "Animal" preliminaries.

PS. Think of it like voting for politicians. The preferences system there doesn't necessarily mean that the most popular person/party gets in. Similarly this is a system in which the best photo may get voted out in the first round. At least in this case, the majority of people (in that round) thought that it was not the best photo. (Whatever 'best' means to them.)

[stepbystep]

PS. Think of it like voting for politicians. The preferences system there doesn't necessarily mean that the most popular person/party gets in. Similarly this is a system in which the best photo may get voted out in the first round. At least in this case, the majority of people (in that round) thought that it was not the best photo. (Whatever 'best' means to them.)

Just lost your argument right there!

[Son of a Beach]

Yeah, I knew it was dangerous to make that comparison. The point is that no voting system is perfect and none will necessarily result in the best candidate winning. Changing the rule won't change that general problem with multi-level voting systems.

I am sorry if you can't re-enter the photo you wanted to though.

[Nuts]

Ah, he'll have the usual head start anyway, flag him

[stepbystep]

But I've only got one good water shot and I was robbed I tells ya!

[Son of a Beach]

PS. I should point out that the original purpose of introducing the 5 non-monthly preliminary competitions (instead of jumping straight to the grand final based only on the 12 monthly winners) was to give people an opportunity to enter photos that they were unable to enter into the monthly competitions.

[ILUVSWTAS]

So when will we see this happen?

[Son of a Beach]

The voting? After the current monthly polls close the preliminary polls will be posted I reckon. Just trying to keep them separated.

[tom_brennan]

Are these comps ever going to get finalised

[wildwalks]

Hi
Sorry that the comps have taken ages to finalise -- my bad

done now
Australian Photo of the Year 2012
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=13162
(Congrates Tom)

Tasmanian Photo of the Year 2012
http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=13163
(Congrates Shazcol)

Well done -- all the images are amazing.

Matt