Best shots

[shaggy1969]

Hello kind and gentle folk of the Photography and Arts forum.

Little ole Shaggy has been thinking about this forum and all the wonderful images that are being and have been shared on this forum.

I am not sure how to word this without offending anyone,because that is the last thing I would dream of doing,but every now and again a photo

gets posted with what I would call the 'Wow Factor' but after some time it disappears under new posts.

So,that got me to thinking about maybe starting a new topic where members post what they think is their own 'Wow Factor' photo.

My thinking would be that the image could be from any genre as long as it their own and taken in Thailand.

Now here's the twist........

We all get to vote on your image by means of the 'like' button.If the image receives a certain amount of likes. then it would then get moved into

another closed thread in the pinned area of the forum (if that is Ok with Astral,Anguid and Tywais),kinda creating a members gallery.

The forum is buzzing with life now and I think that this idea will encourage more posters to share their images (just like it does around calender time)

If this idea of mine gets the green light from the mods and members then maybe we could use this thread to discuss about how many likes

are needed and how many entries per member,size image etc..... and then open a new thread for the entrees.

I do realize that maybe some members will be disappointed if their photo doesn't get voted in,but we are all adults here and I think we can take that knock on the chin.

Is this a good idea or did Shaggy make a Boo-Boo?

Your thoughts and suggestions please.

Warm regards

Shaggy

P.s apologies to the Mods for not conferring with you first.

[Goompa]

I thought it was ANGIUD shaggy

[shaggy1969]

I thought it was ANGIUD shaggy

My apologies for the typo Angiud

and many thanks for the correction Goempa

[Goompa]

Accepted , I would have been happy with Grampa as well , I think the idea is good on pretext scraggy69 .

I do so however consider that it would end up a little bit messy , and a few hurt feelings with just maybe a ( missed it by that much ) opinion .

The Calendar competition is viewed by many TVF members and somewhat ambiguous to all those that view and vote , I consider that your idea is a fantastic opportunity for all those that post regularly to think about their best ^ shot .

The Calendar opportunity is promoted very well , and open to all as well.

There are many Professional Photographers out there that would blow this out of the water if they were to start submitting

Just my opinion .

Anyway just another mis-guided rant from the Goempa .

[shaggy1969]

Thanks for your valued input Goomps,it is appreciated.

You have made some good points there and that is why I put this idea up for discussion.

What you said about the pro's blowing it out of the water is true.....but is that a bad thing?

I would also like to think that they would use their own judgement on how many they posted.

I do believe that the regular posters on here have also photos that are worth framing.

For myself I love to look at other peoples work and try to learn from them....

What you said about the calender thread being well promoted is very true,but the photos are lost

from the forum.As far as I know there are only the ones from last years competition still on view.

As i said,maybe I made a Boo-Boo with this idea....but it is still interesting to hear what you all think.

I am not the best writer in the world but I hope that you all understand my thinking behind this idea.It is meant with good intentions

[Goompa]

Pro's Blowing , out of the water , never a bad thing ( restricted innuendo )

I think the concept is good shaggy , maybe a trial to gain the reaction from the many posters and the many members would be an insight into the fruition of your idea , I think that new submissions to keep the fire burning in different directions would be advantageous to the whole Photography threads here on TVF and maybe bring on board some new and invigorating posters as well , some new blood so to speak

Better you run it by the Mods first , I think

[MJP]

Great idea.

Where is Angiud anyway? I follow him on Flickr and he's been posting the most incredible butterfly shots.

[Goompa]

Great idea.

Where is Angiud anyway? I follow him on Flickr and he's been posting the most incredible butterfly shots.

I was kinda hoping you would come on board to give us a thrill MJP , could do with a few good shots as you have been away for a bit , hope you got a bit BTW.

Regards , Goempa

[samuijimmy]

Angiud... Anguid ..... where art thou? .... He does not mind which way we spell his name....

Yes, he's been very quiet of late! Nothing since before his trip south, which seems like months ago?

Getting to the idea, yes good one, but as just mentioned in another thread, we all run out of likes too quickly.... which won't make this easy or perhaps fair... ?

Hmmm .... let's see what the Mods think....

I don't think we all want this .... after we run out of likes.... I try not to post too often without an image... it gets a bit tedious.... if to often!

[MJP]

Great idea.

Where is Angiud anyway? I follow him on Flickr and he's been posting the most incredible butterfly shots.

I was kinda hoping you would come on board to give us a thrill MJP , could do with a few good shots as you have been away for a bit , hope you got a bit BTW.

Regards , Goempa

Trouble is my favorite shots are just of the kids last Christmas day, whilst not being Henri Cartier-Bresson are still my faves.

Sometimes we go to Mukdahan and have lunch by the Mekong, this is one of a series of my favorites. Good times!

[shaggy1969]

A couple more positive votes ^

Lets see what the Bosses say,I might yet be in for a rap on the knuckles for starting this thread.

Hopefully not,fingers crossed.

[Goompa]

Just the fact of your post is enough to give a chill up the spine , without even opening the post mate to view mate .

Hey , like my DP , my Avatar ?

come on give me a like for the effort , mate , buddy , pal

[Rob8891]

Well done Goompy....a good idea. Of course, I'll cry like a baby if I don't get enough likes, but there are some stunning photographers in the forum, so we should be in for a treat.

Running out of likes might not be a problem, since one can always go back and give a like another day (hint hint)...Amyway, if the mods support the idea, let's give it a whirl. I have to admit, I misread the concept at first, and thought the idea was to nominate a pic from someone else...which could bruise or inflate egos even more, your way could require a bit more courage from some posters.

[Tywais]

Just saw this and PM from Shaggy. There is no problem with the subject but technically will be complex. At one time we had a members photo gallery which would be ideal to place the selected photos but that had been removed for some time due to lack of support from the original author or security issues. Plus, some things got in there that were a bit 'racy' so necessary to moderate the gallery.

One technical issue is that there is a policy not to move, merge posts into another topic. The other topic in this case would be the selected photos. However, in this case that may be acceptable as it is for a specific useful purpose and AFAIK won't break anything.

Between work and the current critical problems in Thailand requiring all hands on deck to monitor the forum I will let you guys work out how to go about it. I will check in to see what progress there is in the concept. Let's leave this topic as the work sheet for the idea and then later create a new topic just for the contributions.

One thing I see with this challenge is the opportunity for members to try and think outside the box and put their best foot forward and will be a learning experience 'comparing notes' so to speak.

[Tywais]

One suggestion for rules is of course one post, one photo to keep it manageable. It was a headache with the calendar contributions with 10 photos in one post sometimes. Possibly a limit on the total number of photos a member can post in the topic as a whole? Also they should be taken after this topic was started and not an archived photo? This requires going out and doing new stuff.

[shaggy1969]

Thank you Tywais......You Da' Man

OK guy's and gal's we have got the green light from the boss.

How do we take it from here?

Maybe some things to be considered are......

How many likes needed for the image to be moved in to the gallery thread?My thinking is quite a high number (10+)

Giving TVF permission for your photo to be used in the gallery.

One photo per post per entrant and no multiple posts by the same member.Giving everyone an equal chance of viewing and likes.

Not to throw a wobbler if your photo doesn't make it or gets criticized,after all it is still for fun

Any more thoughts or ideas that should be taken into consideration before we set up the entrants thread?

Apologies Tywais......you beat me to that one,typing at the same time with the same idea.

Edited May 25, 2014 by shaggy1969

[samuijimmy]

To quote Tywais...

"Between work and the current critical problems in Thailand requiring all hands on deck to monitor the forum I will let you guys work out how to go about it. I will check in to see what progress there is in the concept. Let's leave this topic as the work sheet for the idea and then later create a new topic just for the contributions" ....

This should give us a bit of time to work out how to go about this (hopefully not too long!) .... The biggest problem I see is as with this morning, I am out of likes.... and I am not sure if everyone has the same quota of "likes".... ?

I suppose we can go over images again later, to mark the "wow factor" images... with likes... Ten likes might be a bit high, I think there are very few images that have a ten like rating??? Some should have more... than they do.... Perhaps we'll need to experiment with this?

The other problem I see is using new images only, is that several contributors don't live in Thailand full time, or are currently else where.... that would not really be fair to these guys!

Let's see what evolves!

[fimgirl]

Just a thought.

Contributors can submit a maximum of 3 images per month irrespective of when they were shot. An independant panel then select the best overall 3 and they are included in the "best" gallery. No "likes" no favouritism. And then on to the next month. At the end of the year we have 36 images of which the best 12 (again selected by the panel) become the calendar images. As such the submissions should be Thai themed.

No member can have more than one shot per month selected and (obviously) the selected images cannot be submitted again. Images not selected can be submitted for future consideration.

In this case maybe the panel could consist of the forum mods plus 2 other willing mods. Their criteria for selection can be based on whatever they deem.

Might work if the mods have time.

[sunshine51]

Two things to consider...

1. If the source material is RAW then after processing the pix should be

converted to jpg in order to keep file sizes down and the poster

doesn't run outta space for future posts on TV.

2. Exif data should be left intact...just so a judge can easily determine

if the pix are web forgeries or original work.

I know some folks may be a bit hesitant on #2 for privacy reasons

etc...but they shouldn't be. Just put a small logo of your own design

or your initials in the lower left or right hand corners. If one is

really paranoid they can put a barely visible copyright kinda logo

all the way across the photo and the judges can discount this in

their decisions as it should not mess up the overall quality of the

pix.

Just two more suggestions...sip satang/sotong....

[samuijimmy]

I see Shaggy has "lost face" already.... no pic in his Avatar

I think we need to use the KISS principle some how, and really not make this too complicated for anyone...

This is a fun forum.... it's not totally serious it's not just for professional photographers .... let's not get too many rules and regulations .... people will loss interest fast!

Also, I really think the mods have enough to do, (generally they have an easy job on this forum, I think everyone would agree ) so some how we the regular posters of images, here need to come up with a way to keep in simple!

My thoughts ....

[Rob8891]

^^ Simple is good for me, SJ. So...

• How about each month members post (1/2/3) photo(s) that they think have special merit. The number of photos is up for debate!
• Photos carry exif info to prove authenticity
• Members then cast their votes with the 'like' system....
• No "Outta likes" comments... come back next day and cast the like
• Each month, the (1/2/3) highest scoring photo(s) go forward to the gallery. The number of photos is up for debate!
• The suggestion of >10 votes goes forward might not work, as there are a relatively limited number of regular contributors. (Although it is not a closed forum, do we really want to trawl the General forum to get extra voters? )

Benefits of the sytem...

• Self-scoring.
• No need for mods to have heavy workload here

Drawbacks

• Open voting means that anyone can wander in and vote (but we're all nice people...no corrupt voting, eh? )
• Danger of bruised egos??? I cannot really see that happening, but if so, then it's a good impetus to improve one's standards!

Lastly, a big apology to Shaggy. Last night, totally overcome by Goompa's avatar (and awash with red wine), I made an ar$e of a post.

Shaggy, I think this idea of yours has huge potential.

Goompa...love the avatar!

............ but sorry to see Benny Hill got the chop!

[shaggy1969]

A lot of very good input and suggestions put forward today.

I do like Jimmy's suggestion about keeping it simple but for this idea to work we also need it to stay friendly and show respect to each other.After all this forum is for all of us to share and enjoy.

My thoughts on how things could work.

(1) Every member gets the chance to post 1 photo every month,for the duration of that month other members have the opportunity to vote on the photo with the like button.

(2) If the photo gathers enough likes in that month then it will be moved by a Mod into a closed gallery thread in the pinned section of the forum along with the members user name.(maybe avatar also)

(3) After the month is up and the image hasn't accumulated enough votes it will become void.The member then gets a chance to post a new image for the new month.

(4) Maybe to keep things tidy in the thread a Mod can clean up the voids entrees and comments?

Amount of votes needed

My initial thoughts on this were staggeringly high (15) but I thought that you all would laugh at me and so ended up suggesting 10 (or more).

Some of you thought that this was already to high and unachievable.I think not,tonight I had a quick look around the different topics and counted 25+ regular posters.

That is not including the boys on the top shelf in the technical areas of the forum.......I know your up there because I go and have a peek every now and then.

So are 10 votes really out of reach? I think not. After all you are putting your photo up to be judged with the hope of it been shown in the gallery .....so it had better be worth a 10.

Hobby photographers and the Pro's.

Before there was a little bit of a drift (to put it mildly) between the two sides and caused some bad feeling within the Photography and Arts community.We have all got something in common

and that is our love for photography and Thailand,so how about working together? For my thinking we are lucky to have the Pro's in this forum and hopefully they can help us hobbyist's take

our own skills onto a higher level with tips and advice on how to improve our photos.

This is purely my opinion,but if one of the Pro's see's a photo that has been entered and hasn't quite made the grade but could of done with a little Post editing, then let us know.

Nobody likes to be criticized,but constructive criticism is always welcome.

Anyway,those are my thoughts and suggestions.

Good luck to everyone that enters and I hope that it also encourages new people to join this wonderful forum.

Shaggy

P.s....after all this I am not even sure if I have a photo worth entering but will look forward to all your wonderful photos

[Dancealot]

Shaggy, please compile a basic and readable summary when the rules have been set and agreed on.

The spirit and atmosphere on this new thread is POSITIVE and that's precisely what I'm looking for. I have nothing to add and will follow your rules.

Thank you.

[rhythmworx]

May I put forward a few suggestions for your consideration?

A good idea would be to set a challenge for that month.

eg... Shaggy's idea so he sets the 1st challenge for example, he could say this months challenge is to shoot a photo of a sunset.

The winner of that month can then set the next challenge/theme for the next month eg... take a photo that contains the colour red...low key photo...high key photo...black and white...nightime shot...market shot...fill the frame...freeze the motion etc...There is a long list of themes/subject to choose from.

That way people are actually challenged to find something that fits the challenge and it may help people grow as photographers and practice new skills.

It's a similar concept to what happens at DPChallenge if anyone frequents that site?

As SamuiJimmy says some people aren't in Thailand all year round so if a theme was chosen it could literally be taken anywhere in the world and still have that wow factor, I know this is a Thailand forum but we all appreciate photographs in this subforum..

I also think you should set a limit on the image width (which would equal height if shot as portrait) that way photos will be of similar size and people wont have to scroll across their screen to view the photo.

[shaggy1969]

Hmmmm,I got a bit carried away with my own thoughts that I forgot to comment on some of yours.

Fimgirl made a valid point about favoritism............ Only give a like/vote to an image if You truly believe that the photo you are voting on is a great photo and is worthy

of your vote.Not just because you don't want to offend the person that entered the photo or because he/she is a friend of yours.Nothing personal but needs to be fair.

Sunshine also made a good point about copyrighting your image.If there are folks that are not too sure how to do it then one of us will help I am sure.

If anyone has any problems resizing their photos or is entering their photo as a thumbnail image but would rather do a full view image but doesn't have the know how

or isn't using one of the photo share sites (Flickr,Picasa etc) then you can send your image to me and I will make a folder in my Picasa and send you the link via an email

which you should just be able to paste into your post.

@ Rob.......no worries mate

@Jimmy.....got me face back on again

[shaggy1969]

Shaggy, please compile a basic and readable summary when the rules have been set and agreed on.

The spirit and atmosphere on this new thread is POSITIVE and that's precisely what I'm looking for. I have nothing to add and will follow your rules.

Thank you.

Mate,I'm Just throwing ideas in with the rest of you good folk.

The rules need to be agreeable to everyone, otherwise the hole thing will go pear shaped.

Lets see what other people have to say first and hear their ideas.

[rhythmworx]

Would also like to suggest any post processing steps if done, to be briefly mentioned with the photo, it could help others try new PP techniques.

[fimgirl]

Rhythmworx suggestion of a monthly theme is a good idea inasmuch as it removes the possibility that every month (say) a sunset shot wins which would see a best shots gallery containing only sunsets.

Another thought might be to table at the onset what is to be the subject of each month for the forthcoming year. This would allow contributors to pre-plan a shot rather than surprising them with a subject matter they had not previously covered, or indeed, had limited access to, i.e. Ron might select Etans. I've never seen one in my area, and doubt I'd find one in a month!

I would suggest: people, sunsets, beach, Thai smile, night, nature, wildlife, portrait, sport, architecture, food, events. Or suchlike. You choose. The OP could determine the themes and order.

What would happen in the event of equal likes across several images?

Finally, You'd probably also need to set a closing date for votes.

Food for thought maybe. Hope it helps a little.

Edited May 27, 2014 by fimgirl

[phuketrichard]

i like the idea; MY $05 worth

but how is it diferent from the calander?

If its best shot it should be from wherever the photogrpaher shoots it

and not tied to After today

Would also like to suggest any post processing steps if done

disagree on this point,

I want my photo judged on its merits and how i got what i present is not relevent.

Edited May 27, 2014 by phuketrichard

[Tywais]

For those who may not have been a member for long we used to have photo Challenges which is similar to what we are doing here but focused. Some examples of past challenges and note each normally has a set of rules/guidelines and a voting mechanism via the gallery. However with the gallery gone the likes will have to be the voting mechanism. If this gets off maybe I can whisper in George's ear to send the new comps out in a News Letter to publicize it, otherwise as mentioned, we have a limited number of regular contributors and maybe draw in a new crowd.

A few of the previous competitions below to give you an idea of format. Some really great competition ideas were in there. These are old enough to be all archived.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/344160-competition/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/318919-competitions/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/314160-snapshot-challenge-2-food/

Voting mechanics - http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/311402-voting-is-closed-in-the-snap-shot-photo-comp-1/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/429527-photography-forum-challenge-4/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/423390-photography-forum-challange-3/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/418268-photography-forum-challenge-1/

A 14 page of entries - http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/275319-the-post-what-you-want-challenge/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/320481-photo-challenge-11-transport/