ericnl said:
an

an interesting subject doesn't necessarily make a good photo.
and a good photo doesn't necessarily need an interesting subject.

True and true. That pretty much sums up the subjectivity of this whole process. The lucky winner and the honorable mentions are the ones where the planets aligned themselves in the eyes of the judges - not necessarily the rest of us.

an

Rx4Photo said:
An unshaven, underfed gentleman lying in one of those boats playing Sodoku is, for me, an interesting subject that I've never been able to capture on my own home soil.

an interesting subject doesn't necessarily make a good photo.
and a good photo doesn't necessarily need an interesting subject.

I think that there has to be something really interesting going on for the photo to cathch the judges eye. Either the subject, setting, lighting, motion or all has to have that special something. We really don't know what countries the 60,000 entries originated from but this is my opinion...I think that in most normal western cities (at least anywhere USA) we've gotten used to a mainstream view of clean, well kept, manicured, and politically correct whereas in many other contries sheer photographic beauty is the result when those things are relaxed.

For example, go to any boat dock or beach in this country - almost every boat is white and lined up perfectly in the little slips. Go to a beach in some of the island countries and you'll see boats of different vivid colors - some docked and many anchored just off shore. To me that's beauty worth taking a picture of. An unshaven, underfed gentleman lying in one of those boats playing Sodoku is, for me, an interesting subject that I've never been able to capture on my own home soil.

hmmmm, it kind of looks like the winning photos are more about having a good subject than taking a good photo. hard to "win" if you just live in a normal western city, even if you have a great eye for photography... ;)

Rx4Photo said:
After looking at the current standouts and some of the past winners from years gone by I've concluded that it can be almost anybody's game. Seems you must have 3 things: (1) have the camera (2) be there (3) have enough conviction and passion to get that shot (even if your wife and kids are tugging at you and yelling "c'mon Daddy, jeezzz!!")

Heck, I might enter something this year....

Haha, I like your reasoning. You have nothing to lose. Besides, entering is so effortless, I submitted something almost 3 years old for this event.

After looking at the current standouts and some of the past winners from years gone by I've concluded that it can be almost anybody's game. Seems you must have 3 things: (1) have the camera (2) be there (3) have enough conviction and passion to get that shot (even if your wife and kids are tugging at you and yelling "c'mon Daddy, jeezzz!!")

Heck, I might enter something this year....

I think there are some amazing shots in there, and considering they had 60,000 entries I feel for the judges. It's interesting to read the judges' comments on the procedure page. It seems like there are some reservations about the current process.

Not that the shots were bad, but they didn't really wow me. They seemed like something you would see in a local magazine, but not a national magazine...know what I mean? Maybe they were trying to keep the prizes out of "Pro" hands and give the average person some props...which in case I should have won ;)

I honestly do think that there are better pics in our photo posts on here. I had actually forgotten about the contest because it took so long. Some of them really to me looked like a photo manipulation contest. I know the rules allowed for it, but personally I like to see just great photos instead of who can use photoshop better. I know others commented on the HDR thing and I agree.

JJump said:
I have to admit, most of the winning shots wouldn't have even made the short list of more prestigious photo contests.

+1

Kind of echo's my thoughts too. Shame.

kyoshinikon said:

I just didn't feel like most of the pics were that good or meaningful.

[...]

Diversity seems to be an overwhelming theme as it is also in the Costco and Nat geo photo contests....

[...]

Im not a wonderful judge but I'm sure there were more impactful photos where the story lies in the photo and not the text under it...

Well,

For what it's worth I did like a few of them, but overall, I thought most didn't impress me as being particularly wonderful either. That was until I looked at the list of prizes. Then it became clear that this contest was designed to encourage mid-level club photographers and the spread and kind of pictures (note I didn't say 'images'), that won kind of made more sense.

Looking at the kind of images (note I didn't say 'pictures'), posted in the [NR] group pool, I think that many are equal to or better than the winners.

Maybe we should put together a kind of "enter every darn contest out there" group ourselves and see what results we get, just for giggles and perhaps play the system a bit? I have a couple of gold medal winning print from contests (ok, so they are black and white prints from film and chemical days), I won in the late 1970's/early 80's I'd be happy to donate them "to the cause".

Urgh... Nah... It's way too cynical an idea. I got past that kind of contest thing 25 years ago.

adamz said:
I went through all of the winning pictures and... the more competition pictures I see, the more I don't understand who decides either this particular photo is good or not as IMHO most of them look like casual shots - nothing extraordinary, just ok. Do You guys also have such a feeling, or my perception is wrong and the winning snaps are really so good.

I have to admit, most of the winning shots wouldn't have even made the short list of more prestigious photo contests. I thought one of the best ones was the red deflated balloon with the blurry figure walking through. I think it was better than the winner in that category. I'm not a fan of the grand prize winner. Way too much going on in it, and that large black blob on the upper left corner takes up way too much of the shot. I mean, why reward someone for taking such a poorly composed shot, just because they caught someone in mid air? I did like the "Energy" winning photo, though.

i really dislike HDR work it makes photography look like an oil painting even when done right I still don't like it. Nothing worse than overcooked images. The grand prize winner "Learning to Fly" is a great shot isn't it? India sure would be a nice place to visit thats for sure. Thanks for the link Bernard! I forgot about this competition :)

Only contests like the Black Spider Awards value more than life experience emotions and mere diversity. Often Judges are biased to both their feelings and political beliefs as well as the fatigue of judging 10,000+ photos. Many judge panels in a contest won't even really look at all of the content but just a marginally large amount of it.

I just didn't feel like most of the pics were that good or meaningful. The diaper one seemed odd ("Hey honey" "whaaa... HI!"). I really agree with NSXType on the NYC one as you could find that on a million flicker photographer pages (not that it looks bad). While a good shot the cat one was more lolcats than IPA content...

Diversity seems to be an overwhelming theme as it is also in the Costco and Nat geo photo contests....

Im not a wonderful judge but I'm sure there were more impactful photos where the story lies in the photo and not the text under it...

I like most of the pictures. Nikon sells cameras to different audiences and needs to reach all of them in order to do business. This contest is Public Relations, it is not a Pulitzer Prize.

Perception of beauty varies with our age and our experience in life, but there are basic rules that no one can escape from (Rules which apply to all forms of art). This should be taken into account by any judge but sometimes they fail to do that. Read their comments, I found them interesting, even if I disagree sometimes.

It's a fact that a number of pictures are quite common, and I'm sure that there were dozens of photos that we all would have chosen rather than some of those. However, the very good ones are exceptional.

A contest is a contest after all. You win some, you lose some… :)

adamz said:
I went through all of the winning pictures and... the more competition pictures I see, the more I don't understand who decides either this particular photo is good or not as IMHO most of them look like casual shots - nothing extraordinary, just ok. Do You guys also have such a feeling, or my perception is wrong and the winning snaps are really so good.

The one with the baby and the mother seemed that way.

It looks like he had just called the mother's name and the photographer caught her just as she was turning while she was changing the baby's diaper.

Along with that odd diaper changing photo, they also seem to like group jump shots a lot too.

I went through all of the winning pictures and... the more competition pictures I see, the more I don't understand who decides either this particular photo is good or not as IMHO most of them look like casual shots - nothing extraordinary, just ok. Do You guys also have such a feeling, or my perception is wrong and the winning snaps are really so good.

+1 on the HDR thing. I stumbled upon the technique about a year or so ago and have been playing around with it. While it has its place and can do some things that "conventional" photography cannot, the "grunge" look never appealed to me. I was recently at an art show where a photographer was displaying a bunch of heavily processed HDR images accompanied by the caveat, "These are not paintings."
Walking away, I wondered to myself why he'd gone to so much trouble to make them look like paintings. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder and artistry is about self-expression, but it's just one person's pov. I'm sure there are opposing ones out there.

I totally agree with you ! I had the same reaction and I can't understand how it got to that level…

Agreed, lots of great shots there.

One shot in particular that I really didn't like was the super HDR NYC one.

It's been done to death already.

The results can be seen at the following link:

http://www.nikon-npci.com/eng/results/2010-2011/index.htm

I'm glad I didn't win. I wouldn't know what to do with yet another camera !… :)

Just kidding of course ! Some of the winning shots are really outstanding !