Global Photowalk 002 Contest Announced

The next contest is bigger than the last one… we have an amazing prize from BacklitBox.com to give away, and contestants will have 48 hours to shoot and post. The contest runs this coming weekend, and as before, the theme will be announced at the start of the 48 hour window.

If you want to participate, head on over to Google+ at http://jal.bz/GlobalPhotowalk002 — and if you’re not in G+ yet, let me know in the comments and I’ll send you an invite!

I actually did a video on the prize, I thought this thing was so cool… check it out:

Google+ Image Editing Contest, Final Day

The current contest is coming to a close… and a new contest is less than a day away!

Yep, the week is finally nearly over, and I’ll be closing up the gallery for the first contest this evening. No set time, but really, it’s been up for a week now, so I think that’s OK ;-) — I’ll announce the winner right away!

The new Global Photowalk Contest, which I’m really excited about, is less than a day away! I can’t wait for this one—I’m super excited to see what you guys come up with. I’m still mulling the topic in my head, so it’s not even solidified. Makes it exciting for me, too!

Google+ Image Editing Contest, Day 6—and the NEXT Contest!

Google+ Contest

Instructions & Rules: http://jal.bz/GooglePlusContest
Gallery to Share & Comment: http://jal.bz/ImageEditingContest

Current Statistics

593 downloads of original RAW file
274 submissions
113 Google+ Shares
29 Google+ +1’s

A little spike is nice…

Looks like I got a share from a Google+ official last night, which brought some more people in this morning. Nice! And a note for those just joining… if you feel like it’s not fair that your image won’t have as long to be judged, just remember that we’re all in this for fun, and I’ve been thinking about how to accomodate that for the next contest!

Next Contest? Oh yeah…

The next contest will be totally different! I’m going to announce a date and time, for example, Saturday from 1200 GMT to 1500 GMT, in advance. Everyone who wants to participate just needs to be in my Photographers circle (if you have participated in the current contest, you’re in. If you don’t think you’re in, comment on G+ and I’ll add you). I’ll announce the topic at that exact start time, and you’ll have three hours to shoot, edit and upload your photo. After the deadline, the gallery will be closed to submissions, and the voting will commence!

What will the topic be? Since it’s a universal time, not a local time, it won’t be anything like “sunrise”. It’ll be more generic or esoteric, like “tree” or “happiness” or “the color mauve”. Obviously it will be harder for people in some regions of the world to participate, but don’t worry… assuming this is successful I’ll do it again and again, and always shift the times.

The idea is a “global photowalk”, where we all go out at the same time, everywhere in the world, and shoot! I think it’ll be a hoot.

I haven’t quite figured out judging yet for this one. I want to do it by +1s, but there doesn’t appear to be any way to compare all the +1s in a gallery. The current one is tallied by comments, which is OK but isn’t ideal. I want it to be easy for people to vote, and obviously clicking the +1 button is easy. So I need to figure that out first. I’ve reached out to a couple people at G+ who’ve already stopped by this contest, but haven’t heard back. Fingers crossed! And of course if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Once I have the logistics all figured out, I’ll launch it.

Oh, and my buddy Chris Fenwick reminded me yesterday that this was basically an idea he shared with me in July of last year. So shout-out to Fen, who gets credit for this concept, even if I forgot it was his :) If you need to know anything about advanced video editing, check out his blog at ChrisFenwick.com.

My version for Day 6

Today for mine I went back to textures, since that seems to be so popular. I chose to use my own preset pack again (hey, whatcha gonna do) ApertureExpert PresetPack#4 Textures using preset TextureStack 9 | RGB Subtle. These preset packs are made using Trey Ratcliff’s textures, so you know the source is good :) I tweaked only the first instance of Curves, reversing the curve to darken instead of lighten that portion of the image, and did nothing more.

If you’re an Aperture user and didn’t think you could apply textures without leaving the app… think again ;)

Treated only in Aperture 3 with ApertureExpert PresetPack#4 Textures (preset TextureStack 9 | RGB Subtle) Click to view in the gallery

Google+ Image Editing Contest, Day 5

Google+ Contest

Instructions & Rules: http://jal.bz/GooglePlusContest
Gallery to Share & Comment: http://jal.bz/ImageEditingContest

Current Statistics

559 downloads of original RAW file
249 submissions
93 Google+ Shares
25 Google+ +1’s

The comments are rolling in!

Growth in the contest has slowed down, which is just fine, and I’ve been seeing a lot of comments come streaming past, so that’s great. Don’t forget to look at the other contestants’ photos while you’re in there… if you want them looking at yours, you gotta look at theirs! Ask questions of the artist, complement or complain, whatever you like… just get that dialog going!

It’s one of the greatest things about being a photographer in this age—the ability to share and learn from others so easily. I’ve never encountered a community online that’s as generous as photographers with information about their art. Don’t forget to be a part of it!

My version for Day 5

I went back to Aperture for today’s image, and used a plug-in that I don’t often use, but is from a company I love — Color Efex Pro 3.0 by Nik Software. This is one of their included presets, “Glamour Glow”, with some minor tweaks, a subtle crop, and a bit of burning on the wall to the right to push it farther into the background.

This version was treated with Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 3.0 based on the “Glamour Glow” preset. Click to view larger.

The Next Contest

Yep, I’m already scheming the next contest! It’ll be completely different than this one, and done in a much more limited time frame. I’ll work out all the logistics and post details tomorrow or the next day. Stay tuned!

Google+ Image Editing Contest, Day 4

Google+ Contest

Instructions & Rules: http://jal.bz/GooglePlusContest
Gallery to Share & Comment: http://jal.bz/ImageEditingContest

Current Statistics

534 downloads of original RAW file
219 submissions
92 Google+ Shares
25 Google+ +1’s

Where we’re at…

Everyone seems to having so much fun with this; it’s really great to see. Hopefully many of us are learning new techniques and getting new ideas. I know I am!

I know I set out very few rules in the beginning, but there’s one suggestion I’d like people to follow. I deleted one photo (the first, and hopefully the last) from the uploads because I felt it was disrespectful to the subject (objects placed in the scene that weren’t originally there along with a potential corporate brand name concern). That’s a slippery slope to step on, but I stand by my decision. I’ve asked the artist to contact me directly but haven’t heard back, so either they understand or don’t want to discuss it, and either is fine with me. I’m sure the artist was just having a bit of fun, so no disrespect to them at all, but let’s keep it clean in there, m’kay?

Don’t forget to comment!

Comments are how you win this game! I’ve noticed some images don’t have ANY comments at all. I have realized (at least I think this is true) that a photo doesn’t show up in everyone’s stream until it gets a comment. SO with that said, when you post your own image, be sure to comment on it—that first comment can be a larger explanation of what you did, or even just copy/paste your caption. But I think that’ll get it kick started. Only one way to find out!

Someone asked how I’d accomodate all the self-comments in the final tally. Not that people are trying to vote themselves up, but that photographers are responding to comments in their thread. After thinking about it, I may not discount those comments at all. The thing about a comment count (vs. a vote count, not that there is one) is the winning photo becomes the one that generated the most discussion. If you, the viewer, want to ask the photographer a question, that’s good! And if they respond, even better! More dialog, more exposure, more thought. That’s the winning image in my mind.

As I said in the beginning, I reserve the right to make this up as I go, but I think we’re on the right track here.

My version for today

Yesterday I posted a version done entirely in the iPad; (and the few comments it got, people didn’t like it, awww), and today I wanted to go completely analog. So I printed the original on my crappy inkjet printer, then tried to “age” the paper using coffee, following a technique on wikiHow. I also aged a few more pieces of white paper, with the intention of setting up a shot in the attic as if I’d stumbled upon this ancient print in a box of other papers.

Sadly, my attempt to age failed pretty badly. Tip: injet prints run like mad when you touch them and they’re wet!! (d’uh). I was doing really well until I followed the step of messing up the surface of the page, which just spread the ink around in a soupy mess. Here’s an instagram photo of the results… I may or may not attempt to set up the final shot I envisioned; this “aged photo” looks pretty sorry.

Aging this photo print didn’t work out so well, did it!

Back to the contest… and don’t forget to vote!