Update: Weekly Assignemnt 89 winner: sharonlowe, Here Lies the Body...
Second Place: wildaxx, angel in the wings and David Gray, Church Gate
Fred'll take care of the details (setting up the lifetime Image Upload) as soon as possible!
Congratulations on the winners!
Daschund
Thank you to everyone who participated in the weekly assignment and congratulations to the finalists
First place prize: The winning photographer will receive a lifetime FM Image Upload subscription!
For more info about the Image Upload subscription, click here.
If you have not done so yet, please take a few seconds to review the Weekly assignment rules. Any member that registers and votes more than once will be disqualified from future participation and banned from the forum.
Since a few images are links to other servers, they may be down and unavailable from time to time. This is out of our control because I can only keep an eye on images uploaded to the FM Gallery host or via Image Upload service.
You have the opportunity to choose the winner for Assignment 89: Churches. Although all of the entries showed good potential and the choice was very hard to make, I took several factor into consideration, including image quality, subject matter, relevance to the assignment, and creativity just to name a few.
First, second and third winners will be posted at the forum portal.
Please cast your vote. (Random order) - Refresh the page if an image does not show up (F5)
I've been away for work and not had the chance to check out everyone's work.
I've gotta say these are probably the best set of finals shots I've seen in the six months or so I've been a member. Congratulations to all of the finalists, outstanding work.
I have to agree with Cord - These photos are fantastic. Good Luck everyone - Wish I had the time to take a few Church Photos But went on vacation instead to Vegas.
I agree...BTW I was looking at the Rules and Guildlines for posting to the WA...it says in the first section that you can't use an image from a URL but then it says you can link it from your homepage...does this mean you can link it but it obviously has to be from your site? or can I just not link it?
I must admit that I was quite disappointed with the choice for the finalists of this WA. Having looked at most of the entries prior to the deadline, I saw at least three (if not more) that appeared to have been well thought out, were pleasing to the eye and IMO were better than a number of those chosen.
In the UK there is an annual art award called the Turner Prize. In the past it has been awarded to entries such as, "an unmade bed" and "a calf pickled in formaldehyde". Hope these assignment entries don't get as ridiculous.
I'm surprised that none of the following made it:
The Up Side MikeM
Church bentdesign
Interior - Duke Chapel bejohnson
Old Kilmuir Parish Church SleepyLizard
and one other which seems to have been pulled which was an entry from South Africa (The church with the yellow flowers in the foreground)
Don't give up guys, I think yours were all great and it is up to the judges at the end of the day.
I don't intend to upset the finalists who all put the effort in and deserve reward for that and I have voted for one of you.
All in all It's only a game, so lets play another next week.
I don't always understand the winning photos - but then I simply am not enough of a photographer yet to understand many of the nuances of what makes a photo overall great. I do know it is not the amount of work put into it, and I do know that it is not the same in everyones eyes. I personally think that winning is a very minor part of the picture here. I see some absolutely spectacular shots - and I learn a lot each time I participate. If I start limiting myself to the winner/loser thing I miss all the rest of the learning and jade the joy. And there is such a joy in the tremendous sharing of comments, opinions, ideas, suggestions. Like everyone feels the pain and everyone feels the joy of each shot. Each of these assignments is such a challenges me against me. And I am the one I have to please. Sounds extremely trite - but one of those truisims that count. And you know, maybe someday serendipity will strike and I will take a perfect picture and be in the running and Tazo votes against me and I suicide!
Brian, I agree, there were three which did not make the finals that I had absolutely no doubt would make the finals:
Frank Thorne's Sefton Church from Lunt, and the entry from South Africa (The church with the yellow flowers in the foreground), and yours.
As this is an educational process (at least for me), why not allow all submissions be voted on? I am sure if asked which are the top 10 that we each would come up with a different list, as we each have different taste. Then let the top two vote getters win? Would this not avoid some of the obvious problems associated with a subjective narrowing of the votiing pool prior to voting? - especially when there are as many fine entries as this week.
This is not a comment about any of the selected finalists they all deserved to be there - there were simply more submissions which clearly qualify as finalists than there are slots.
And to the guy from South Africa - your submission was excellent - and had it been voted on would have done very well indeed. I, for one, would like to see it again!
bejohnson wrote:
I am sure if asked which are the top 10 that we each would come up with a different list, as we each have different taste.
Brad
Exactly. And that's why every week, no matter who chooses the finalists, there will be people that don't agree with at least one of the finalists. Because photography is not an exact matter, where you can say that 2+2=4, then it's right and it will be a finalist.
What everybody forgets is what MarjB kindly reminded us. The Weekly Assignment is NOT A COMPETITION!!!!!! Please, once and for all people, get that into your minds!!! If you are here to try to win, please go post your pictures somewhere else. There are tons of contests on the internet where you can get prizes and everybody votes on everybody's pictures. If that's what you want, then go and participate on those contests. THE WA IS NOT ONE OF THOSE!!!!!! The WA is a place for you to stretch your knowledge, practice your skills and get better with your photography. Did you do that at the end of the week? Then you won. There's always more than one winner. Everybody that understands this philosophy wins. Whoever don't, loose.
So, again (and I hope for the last time), if you're here to be a finalists, and to win, please leave. No questions asked. That's not what we want here.
If you're here to learn, welcome! This is the place to be!
Daschund - I agree with you and Marjorie, I for one am not here to win or be a finalist, but to learn.
The question that I asked, with respect, was why have finalists at all, why not put all submissions up for the vote - this eliminates the subjective filter (which you correctly point out cannot be objective). Or to put it another way, what does the process of selecting finalists add to the learning process?
By the way, this assignment got me out to try shots I never would have thought of trying! And I certainly learned quite a bit from all of the other folks who submitted entries! Really an enjoyable experience... Thanks!
I appreciate that you think there were better shots taken, but that said, the judges apparently did not. I think the last thing this forum needs is a bunch of people running rampant and whining about what was chosen or being whiney because their shot wasn't chosen.
It's essentially luck of the draw. Sometimes, i've wondered why something I enter might not be chosen, but instead of complaining about it, I look at next week's assignment, and go out and start shooting for that.
What's important to keep in mind is not who gets selected as a finalist, or who wins even, but rather that we have a forum that allows us to go out and collectively interpret a topic in a way we see as creative and bring that back for critique and subsequent artistic growth.
You seem to contradict yourself when you talk of the Turner Prize and it's "ridiculous" entires, which others might call conceptual art. The contradiction comes when you say Bent Design's photo was worthy.... when it's conceptual as well and really has nothing to do with the topic of churches!
As a first time finalist, Brian, I felt pretty honored and actually kinda fulfilled. Your comments have made me thought twice about bothering with this board anymore, as people like you (and some others i've run into) make it seem like all internet boards are a waste, with negative crumudgeons who have too much time on their hands.
Sorry for the harshness.... you had to expect it (and maybe that's what you wanted... some attention)
I wish I had signed up for this last week...we have a street called church street in tampa...there's like 400 churches in 4 miles I could've taken a picture with 10 or more churches easily...I'm sure there would be some golden angle in there to take a shot from...still almost every single one if these is great...
Wow, all beautiful finalists. Lets be honest, the judges must have a really tough time choosing from such great work. I appreciate the fact that they put in the time each week to make this such a great forum.
I could've taken a picture with 10 or more churches easily...I'm sure there would be some golden angle in there to take a shot from...still almost every single one if these is great...