Be Excellent To Each Other

I voted for four, though it loses some of its mysterious appeal if you flip it vertically - that makes it look as if the photographer simply snapped his/her own feet (which is probably what they actually did...).

Voting closes in, er (counts up in her tiny brain) five hours!

Hello everyone.

Thanks to all that took part in the contest!

Votes have been counted (a long process, I assure you)

Third place was tied by three entrants:
photo 4, photo 8 and photo 14.

Second went to Photo 5, a wonderful monkey picture by Nynfortoo

First went to Photo 6, by Mimi.

Thanks again for everyone who took time to enter, comment and vote.

Please could the entrants now reveal which picture was theirs and chat ensue.

I'd also like to take a quick moment to mention just a couple of small things that cropped up.

I personally think that if it's going to be anonymous then it should be so until voting closes. I say this just so that no-one feels a bit hard done by and isn't left with any doubt that people didn't vote for them because they didn't personally like them, only voted for them because the were chummy, or didn't vote for them because they had won before, etc. I know it might sound silly to say, but if it is kept anonymous then it is just about the pictures.

Secondly, I felt a bit hurt this time around because someone seemed to be suggesting that my photo was either a stock photo, wasn't entirely my own work, or wasn't entirely my own idea. I spoke to this person and they said that they had mis-phrased it and that they had perhaps been at the vino, which is fair enough, but it did bother me because a) it was of course my own picture and b) I didn't take anything (the lighting, the 'joke', etc) from any other source. I say this because, well, I am not the person to cheat and much as I don't want one person thinking this of me I certainly don't want something said in a thread to make others think this of me.

For the record the first shots I took were useless because the lighting was too bright and the pencil, being an HB and also having been dropped on the floor so the lead was shattered - which was also the source of the 'joke' in the final shot - meant you could not read the words on the page, so I had to close teh curtains, buy another pencil (2B, for a darker line) and then re-took the shot.

Here is one where I was trying to get the position right, and failing:
.

I also forget to re-white balance my camera after closing the curtain and setting up the lamp, which is why the shot has a reddish/sepia tone, but I thought that a happy accident and so kept the shot I eventually settled on.

Now, I am bringing this up because I think in future we are all going to have to just accept that the photos are the member's own work, and that no-one here is going to cheat on a photography competition, for one thing there'd be no point as there would be no sense of achievement. I worked quite had to get my shot and put a lot of thought into it, and though I know that the person who made the comment maybe didn't get across what he meant to say in quite the way he intended to and so just upset me a bit because he was being a bit clumsy in his words, it kind of marred the contest for me because all teh while I was thinking 'oh no, but what if now loads of people thing I have cheated!', but didn't want to say something that would reveal the picture was mine before closing.

OK, well, probably just a few teething points, but it was teh best contes so far - some realy god, visual entries in there.

I'm off today to try and get a shot for the next contest, wish me luck

I posted two of the photos, both taken with my cameraphone at a festival over the weekend. I just wanted to take part, even if they were rubbish

One was the weird luminous lines on a black background. This was a picture of a small child dancing with these strange glowing string thingies. I'll post a picture I took a few moments later with the flash turned on, so you can see what I mean.

The other was my friend Simon trying to snort a line of vodka (and orange) jelly. Needless to say, that didn't work out well for him.

I'd take it as a compliment on the photo. Well done btw.

I'll have to get my camera out and find something photo-worthy to enter one of these.

Well done again, Mimi. And cheers for anyone who voted for me

I don't think anyone was trying to accuse you of cheating, Meems, just that it looked familiar. I don't think anyone would argue that it isn't your own work.

Promise.

Yay! I came joint third!

(Mine was photo fourteen.)

I feel a bit of a cheat, as all I did when I saw the competition theme was point my phone up at the ceiling, snap one picture and then upload it. Not a lot of work involved at all.

I do think it looks pretty good, mind. I was quite surprised it looked like that, given that it was taken in daylight. Would have been better with a bit of care taken to get the light in a better position in the frame, though, I think.

No love for my construction site image - no.7, then?

I suppose that's fair. I did find it visually interesting, but I could have stretched myself a bit more. I was agonising over whether to crop the image or not and didn't in the end. It is a bit of a cold, sterile image though. A bit like a prog-rock album cover, tsk. And the competition was scary strong. I think next time I'll try for a more focused, less cluttered subject.

Any criticism on that one would be muchos appreciated anyway. My blow by blow critique of each photo will have to wait until tonight though.

Me, I was torn between the one with the monkey and the one with the shoes and the double yellow. Despite initially dismissing the latter, it quickly grew on me, and became the winner for me. Still, tough choices in this one. Well done all!

I liked your image, Pete - it had nice symmetry and was full to the brim of lines; but it did feel a bit too cold, and I began to feel it could have done with some cropping to lose some of the busyness.

I knew it was yours, too, though I'm not too sure why.

Heh, don't worry, crying dimlie wasn't literal! And I know how big an agony it is to choose. Thanks for the advice there, I reckon you've got a point with its cramped nature, but the surrounding construction was as high and would have cluttered its pyramidal elegance, losing it in the picture, so I made the tough call to have it focused in. Something to remember though. Cheers!

Mine were number 1 (the ceiling of the Nave at Canterbury Cathedral) and number 13 (a field b a motorway, taken from a car going at about 40mph. You can see the window frame I was looking from in the bottom left. Bloody good shot, I thought, and I've always liked the lines in it so it came straight to mind)

I cheated a bit and used old photos (partly why they were so small - I had to put them on CD when I moved house), but they both came straight to mind, and I hardly take any pictures these days.

I liked the guitar one.

Thank you! I liked the monkey one.

Hello Cathy! Who are you?

Thank you I found this one too difficult to choose, but I ended up shooting myself in the foot and voted on the winner.

I never know how to answer that. I mostly lurk.

How did you find us?

She's someone's girlfriend. Davydd Grimm? I think?

Malc

I have to say I'm disappointed with the winner. It's cunning and amusing and but I think I would have preferred to have something.. well traditional. But hey maybe art is all about breaking the rules and pushing boundaries (not that there necessarily were any in this). Great photo but a bit of a cunning cheat in a way. I still applaud that person's cunning thinking. I also presume the writer of the lines is female. If not your A GAY!!!1!1!11.LOL.


Ahem.

No, that's Tam.

I lurked on WoS for a couple of years. I am someone's girlfriend, but not Davydd Grimm's.

If you were, he would just be being greedy anyway.

Whose? I promise I won't tell.

Are you the OLL Cathy?

There's only one way to find out.

If you have anything interesting to say, email us at....

Oh dear. Yes.

Hang on, I'm thinking of Ann, am I not?

Bums.

Free Market Economists can easily spot mystery Cathies. Thus I claim my £5.

Cathy lurked at the Triforce forum and won an OLL Ann Art I believe. So you know she might as well BE Ann.

Critique people's photography, not their integrity.

I have no problem with people saying - 'your photo does not appeal to me because of this', but I would definitely not want someone to hint that I was in any way not submitting my own ideas or actually a photograph that was not my own when that is just not he case. I think that the two things are quite different. I welcome critique of my actual pictures, but not that.

That's why you should try and use your vote (I do not know if you voted or not, so I am not suggesting that you didn't), but obviously enough people disagreed with you to make it not so.




It's not my handwriting, by the way. I tried to write as childishly yet legibly as I could. My handwriting is quite smooth and flowing, trying then not to wrote 'joined up' is quite difficult, and I struggled a little with stopping the letters run one into another, but it doesn't look like my writing and I don't myself think that it looks particularly feminine, but I wondered why you so certainly thought it to be? What gives it away?

Your writing there looks 100% girl. Most girls have very round lettering exactly like that. Every girl in my classes at school wrote exactly like that. Particularly Jenny Evans and Lisa thingywhatsit. They were best friends those too. Jenny turned into a right slag in later years though despite being quite attractive when she was younger. Got in with the wrong crowd I reckon. Wonder what she's doing now. Probably working as a prositute or something. Probably a mother before she left school.. that's par for the course round here. Oh sorry what? Photos? Oh yes sorry.

But seriously folks while I give you full congratulations for a brilliant bit of lateral thinking, I couldn't help feeling that it was the concept more than the actual photo that wins votes on this occasion. As I say perhaps that's part of the point. It's a damn good photo as well mind you. I didn't vote as I just simply couldn't decide which was the best. But I think I'd have probably gone for number 4.

Yes, I can understand what you mean with girls handwriting sometimes being 'round', but I think I had it in my mind that children's handwriting is also also round - I mean younger children - 7-11 year olds, which is sort of what I was going for.

Cathy, I must say I love your photo, by the way. I voted for the monkeys just because I couldn't help it, but I really admire your picture. I actually had a picture of guitar strings as my other idea, but you pipped me so I didn't enter it. I wasn't quite the same but taken from the bridge looking up the neck, but I like the area of focus of your shot very much. I assumed it was a guy that had uploaded the picture (stupidly, just because the guitar was black (one of mine is bubblegum pink, the other is mint green), but I think that the glossy black looks ace and I quite like the 'dust' in the shot because it gives the picture some atmosphere.

The second photo I uploaded was the ones of the shadow of the railings on the ground outside the grammar school in Lancaster.

Stupidly, I uploaded it the wrong way up for aaaages, but it's the correct way up now.

Younger children can't write that neat. I think you ended up with girl aged 11-16. Also the Gs are too stylish for a young child and the letters also conform to boxes. Note how the Ds aren't haven't got long sticks but have excessively large sticks. You ought to see what I was writing like up to about age 13 when my dad taught me how to write joined up..

It's legible for a start, so it isn't a bloke's writing.

Oh well, I can't see too many applications where I'll have to imitate a child's handwriting.



"Dear Jim.

Please could you fix it for me to bathe in noodles.


Mimi, aged 7."

Thank you

I also took one that sounds similar to the one you mention:



But I think I prefer the one I entered.

Hehe. Yes, that was more or less the same angle

As well as the ones I posted, I had plans for some others too.

I wanted to get some lines of traffic (night shot with red lights showing), some people queueing, some aeroplane contrails, I just didn't have the time.

Malc

"6 - It's just too perfect. The joke is good, the lighting is excellent... I just have a weird feeling that I've seen it before. I know I've definitely seen the concept done before, possibly with even the same joke. It just reminds me of a stock photo. It's the best photo, but for the above reasons I voted elsewhere."

There is nothing in there questioning anyones integrity. You're being utterly ridiculous.

Actually, Ace, I just disagree with you, that's all.

Also, you are detracting from the very point that I was making - I spoke with Curiosity about it and I am absolutely fine with that, I bought this up, if you actually care to read, to make the point that I think that people are just going to have to accept the vast probability that no-one here is going to upload work that is not there own, i was simply saying why this point came to light and how that can be misunderstood (as Curiosity said, I misunderstood his intentions because he had worded it so in his free and slightly tipsy state, and the two parts saying

1]

2]

Did seem to suugest that he had either

1] seen the actual photo before
2] just copied another photo, down to the 'joke'

But again, my reasons for posting about this happening were just so that there was an understanding among people that there was unlikely to be anyone using anyone else's work or 'copying' just to enter the contest. I spoke with Curiosity who was perfectly lovely and understanding of why I PM'd him and explained to me, I understood and all was right with it, but as I can imagine it happening again I thought I'd just say how I feel about giving people the benefit of the doubt that their pictures are all their own work, but if you want to call the way I feel ridiculous then do so, I'm not bothered in the slightest.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned why I arrived at the point I was making, maybe I should have just said that I thought that people should just naturally assume that all work was completely that of the excellent member and that no hints, comments, etc should really be made that might suggest otherwise, but I thought it best give context as to why I was saying this, but that now seems to be the point that you keep going back to despite the fact that I discussed and sorted this out with Curiosity days ago, and he was nothing less than charming and understanding as to why I felt the comments were ambiguous, but you just calling me 'ridiculous' for feeling that way that I naturally did neither helps nor actually adds anything useful to the discussion, so, hopefully, we can just leave it there.

Right, Ace, just leave it, will you?

I felt the comments made it seem like it was, and as I am trying to point out that maybe people should be understanding towards how their comments might appear to other people, just because you personally do not feel that way doesn't actually mean that much. I wasn't asking people to tread on eggshells, just not to mistakenly put doubt (whether by intention or not) in other people's mind that someone's pictures weren't there own.

That is all. Please stop trying to turn this in to something that it isn't.

Thankyou.

To be honest, I thought the same thing as mimi at the time (without knowing she took the photo), but reading it back it does seem less accusatory then I thought it did.

But it also reminded me of an image I'd seen too. I guess the thing to take from it, is that the photo is lit and composed by someone who knows what they are doing. Whereas most of the other ones do not (or are outside where you can't really control the lighting)

Malc

I think to be honest, Malc, that I wasn't so sure that Curiosity actually thought that I had actually either used or copied another's image, but i was more worried that other people might have read that into what he said, thinking 'oh, someone's seen that image previously, hmmmmm...', but, oh well.

Thanks for the comment on the lighting, but I can't take too much credit. It's a student desk lamp turned the wrong way with the curtains drawn. The darkened sepia tint is because I was taking some stock shots in the light tent with six 100w daylight bulbs, which are blue in tone, and I actually forgot to white balance the camera for the first shot which turned it a dark brown in tone, and kind I of liked the effect, but it was more 'whoops' than any skill on m part. A 'happy accident' I think they'd call it if we were talking about contraception...

Unstickied because (a) it's finished, and (b) the thread isn't currently projecting an 'excellent' vibe, and perhaps shouldn't be at the top of the forum.
Which it is now, of course, but that will soon change.