(Photo comp chat here please!) Help me set up the STW forum photo competition

It’s live! Thanks for getting this going Matt and Hannah, it’s a lot of effort for no reward.

My entry for today is my favourite bike photo of the year – I love the stark line of the precipice in front of the rider, who’s gamely dropping into it in full attack mode, fleeing the snow falling around them. It’s not bright, but hopefully it looks like a real adventure. Taken on a little mirrorless digital SLR which I do almost all my riding photos on – I agree with STR, phones just aren’t a match for a real camera (at least, not for the amount of money I’m willing to spend on a phone – but I’m happy for this competition to prove me wrong).

The current rules discriminate against us solo riders. I have hundreds of nice photos of my bike on rides, but none with me in them. We need a ‘bike love’ category 😀

Although the last one kind of has me in it (but no bike 😞 )
Boo hiss – it’s bad enough having no mates but now I can’t even prove I do go out on my bike 😀…

Actually, I’ll start my own rival competition; a prize to whoever can identify the three locations above. 2 easy, one less so!

Last photo – Achininver Beach?

And for the record, I have done he-haw on this. It’s been Hannah and the STW team…

👍

matt_outandabout
Last photo – Achininver Beach?

Close but no cigar, Matt! (Prize isn’t tobacco based 😀 )

Same place different view.

daverhp
The current rules discriminate against us solo riders. I have hundreds of nice photos of my bike on rides, but none with me in them. We need a ‘bike love’ category 😀

I also ride mostly solo, but take at least one riding shot every ride. Just need a bit of patience and creativity.
(not my actual entry below – I’ll decide on that later)

The ‘out there’ category is the one for solo riders. Scenes from when you’re out and about!

@daverhp – both my entries are self-timer shots from solo rides! And loads of others have posted photos without people on or with a bike as per the rules, so just crack on.

Taken on a little mirrorless digital SLR which I do almost all my riding photos on – I agree with STR, phones just aren’t a match for a real camera (at least, not for the amount of money I’m willing to spend on a phone – but I’m happy for this competition to prove me wrong).

Depends on your ‘judging’ criteria.

Despite teaching photography for part of my living, I have absolutely no personal interest in technical image quality when viewing photographs. I know this makes me a bit of an outlier but you’ll know if you’ve seen any of my images posted here that low pixel counts, digital artifacts, noise and heavy processing are things I love rather than avoid. I value idea and feel above any technical quality so I don’t even look at, let alone care about, what gear or settings someone used or if it’s SOC or dragged through every tool Lightroom has.

YMMV.

The only thing I’ll concede are phone lenses are no match for real glass when it comes to depth of field (but even there I tend to buy slow, old lenses with all their foibles over modern glass.

Either way, looking forward to these little contests as a bit of fun and a source of inspiration!

Thanks @stwhannah (must read more carefully) and damn you @colournoise for producing such an excellent image as a self timer shot thus encouraging me to make my rides even slower! Out of interest is that some sort of trap shot, or did you have loads of goes to get it right (or have impeccable timing) ?

Basically, I cheat.

I used to use an app called Framelapse which is basically a glorified burst mode for phones, but now I get better results using my Instas360, capturing a video clip and then reframing before clipping a frame and post-processing.

Like I said, for me the image is what’s important not how ‘pure’ the technique is!

Thanks @colournoise – interesting. I have an Insta360 myself but only really use it sea kayaking. I tend towards grab landscape shots / portraits of my bike in nice situations but I may now be tempted to experiment. I did try panning video using the remote to trigger, but the very poor range of the remote made for a frustrating exercise.

I do try to avoid breaking the flow when riding; in a way the Insta works really well sea kayaking for exactly the same reason (and the remote stays in range) as I can concentrate on the paddling and frame shots and video afterwards without interrupting the experience I seek to capture.

Having a trap type trigger on the Insta seems an obvious feature – surprising they don’t have it.

Is it one photo per category per person?

Thanks for setting this up!

kiksy
Is it one photo per category per person?

If it is, there’s a few of us have already broken one of the few rules this contest has!

Apologies if covered earlier, but when I click the ‘insert image’ thing, a box pops up saying full members can post images, click here. When I click here, nowt happens. Full member and subscriber since Issue 1 GoFar days.

What am I missing?

@boxelder

When you click on the ‘full members can post images’ box, it should open a folder on your computer (probably the last one you uploaded from) then just select the image, click ‘open’ and the image will upload with a percentage graphic. This is on a PC, phone seems to want an img url.

Obviously, this isn’t happening for you, but that’s what should happen.

Is it one photo per category per person?

Definitely should be, but looks like a free for all so far

Is this competition photos taken this year or photos taken at any time?

This year surely

Ta. Some Apple nonsense – works fine on the phone.

I read the rules before posting, but the 1 picture per person isnt mentioned, just one picture per post. So apologies!

Brilliant idea by the way, stuff like this is great fun. I love seeing other people’s pictures.

Is this competition photos taken this year or photos taken at any time?

This year surely

That ‘rule’ has been broken too.

It’s image posting anarchy!

Well I’ve stuck to one image per category, and from the past year (as I thought that was implicit).

But it’s just a bit of fun so I won’t demand a stewards’ inquiry if I don’t win.

Brilliant idea by the way, stuff like this is great fun. I love seeing other people’s pictures.

Yeah, it’s been great to see people’s favourite photos from the year and all the adventures people have been on. The photos say a lot about people too – what’s important to them (the view, the jumps, riding with their kids, the history you come across on a ride, the people, the bikes or whatever) and where they like to go.

I’d initially assumed it was one photo from this year, but some folk started posting a few and I had more than one favourite for some categories so pitched in as well.

I’m finding the levels of engagement and which photos are attracting likes pretty interesting so far.

I’d initially assumed it was one photo from this year, but some folk started posting a few and I had more than one favourite for some categories so pitched in as well.

I must admit that when I first suggested the (POTY) idea, in my mind it was one photo per person and must be from this year.
Hopefully, it will become an annual thing.

Plenty of multiple entries creeping in. I’m not sure it was made explicit in the rules, but one photo each seems right to me.

Hell, it doesn’t really matter as it’s only for fun?

Anyone spotted an AI entry yet?

I’ve been guilty of multiple entries. I’ve not participated before and hadn’t read this thread before posting on the others so wasn’t aware that was a rule. As there is no prize and it’s just a bit of fun I didn’t think it mattered. I thought it was more about sharing good memories. If it does matter, I’m happy for any of mine to be deleted. I’m no photographer, so it’s not like my crappy phone snaps are going challenge anyone who is! 🙂

Seems it might be a bit more serious than I thought,  I’ll maybe leave it to others more talented than me from now on. Good luck, there are some good photographers on here 👍

Multiple entries are allowed, I made no rule against it! But post one image per post, or there’s no way to vote for each favourite.

Since it seems like it’s got a fair amount of interest, I’ll probably suggest we do it again next year, but you’ll have prior warning so I’ll make it images from the past year to trim it down a bit/give you chance to work on your finest through the year.

I don’t think the serious photos from the people into photography are attracting the most votes but the ones taken by people getting a quick snapshot that tells a nice story about a particular moment. It’s nice, it’s definitely not just for **** like me who spend ages faffing about with photos.

Are there going to be new catagories until the photo competion take over the entire forum.:)

@Bruce No, that’s it!

Last call for votes on your favourite photos! I’ll be counting them up once I’ve had coffees, explored my inbox and so on!

Excellent.  I’ve really enjoyed a lot of these

Votes are counted and finalist story is up!

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/vote-here-singletrack-forum-photography-finalists/

I think the mechanism for stopping me voting twice might just look at whether I visited the page. Does that seem likely? I clicked on the overall category first, but didn’t vote. I then went back to it and it said I had voted

Not a big deal

Thanks for organising