Singletrack Forum Photo Awards: ‘Open Category’

Welcome to the Singletrack Forum Photo Awards. This is an idea kicked off in the Forum, partly in response to the Red Bull Illume winners. It’s just for fun – a chance to share and admire a selection of photos and perhaps be inspired to take your own, or just get out on your bike. It’s for internet point, not wealth and glory. But we might send you a certificate. Or we might not. And we’ll probably make up some rules if things get silly (we are familiar with the Forum…).

The first rule of photo awards is: no chat or comments in this story. If you want to chat, go to this thread. The comments section here is ONLY for posting your entries into this category. Which is…

Open

This is for anything within the rules of the forum and decency. It doesn’t have to be bike related at all. Just a photo that you think is really great. Pets, babies, wildlife, arty shots, moving shots. Whatevs. This is your free form let your freak flag fly artistic interpretation or just plain cute category. Go for it!

For reference, the other categories are:

Just Riding Along (must include a person on or with a bike)
Gnarpooning (action/radness/racing/tricks type ‘rad’ shots)
Out There (scenes from out on rides, no bike included)
Bike Life (The incidentals that sum up life as a rider. The muddy faces, the grimy hands, the sandwich on a hill. Atmospheric or humorous shots that make you think ‘yup, that’s what bikes make happen’.)

I want to enter, what do I do?

Upload your image in the comments. One image per comment. If you want to include a sentence to say where/what it is, fine, but no giant stories please. Obviously the image has to be yours to post.

If you’re a Singletrack Subscriber, there’s a simple image upload option – just click the photo icon and add your image.

If you’re not a Singletrack Subscriber, you’ll need to use an image hosting service. There’s a good explanation of how to do that here.

I want to vote, what do I do?

Only Singletrack Subscribers can vote! Voting is done using the ‘golden tokens’ to the left of each post. You can only click a token once, but you can click as many tokens in the thread as you like. So you can vote for as many photos as catch your eye.

OK, and then what?

We’ll be publishing a story each day until all of the categories above are open. Then you’ll have until 2nd January to upload your entries and collect votes. Remember to check back and vote for any late entries that have been added to each thread!

On 2nd January, we’ll work out which three images in each category have the most votes. That will give us three finalists in each of the five categories. We’ll put those finalists in a story and out to the public vote, for maximum internet glory!

And, whatabout…

That’s it for rules. Unless we make some others up. This is meant to be fun, nothing serious! Enjoy looking at the photos, we look forward to seeing them all.

Remember: don’t chat in the comments thread here, or ask questions. It should just be a glorious string of Gnarpooning photos in the comments section. Head here if you have questions or want to debate the rules (oh, please don’t…) etc.

See all the photo competition categories

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.