11-03-10 – Defunct

After looking at what’s posted, I might have something to contribute, but I’ll wait until tomorrow to post, let my brain chew on it and also see if the pictures are worth posting at all. I love what I’ve seen so far though!

The longer you wait, the less votes you get.

It’s not even about votes. I post even I have crap. Participation helps you grow. I was confused why you said you wanted some ideas to grow and then posted that you didn’t want to play this week. Telling yourself you *have* to contribute even if it’s not your best is going to hold your photos to a higher standard. If you’re like me, you’re going to go back and reprocess a photo or come up with a last minute idea if you’re really not satisfied. It takes practice to get creative juices flowing. Plus the voting feedback in some sense directs you to what is working and what is not (although I have lots of photos that I really like that don’t win or aren’t even my highest place photo. It’s balanced out by the ones I think will do poorly and end up doing well.)

I looked at what I had for what I wanted to submit and went “blah, that’s crap.” I could be being picky, but you’ve edged me into posting, so there I am. I picked two that I had been working on and then the third is from last year (I plan on going back to the museum now I have a camera that will do better in low light as they said no flash photography). I have a history of low votes anyway (5 if I’m lucky most pictures) so abstaining doesn’t lose me a whole lot. Thus, I’ve been having a hard time in general garnering more votes and figuring out what works.

Clouddancer – you would be surprised how often “blah, that’s crap” ends up getting more votes than “I love this picture”. I don’t think I’m alone in this.

I usually post what I like anyway, but I mostly stay at the bottom of the pile. Only one has gotten top 10 (the one of Hubby with the bow and arrow hit 6/7th), one hit 11th (my flag picture), and my first penthouse picture hit 19th I think (or had 19 votes). The rest might get 5 or 6 votes, but typically get only 2 or 3. I usually don’t hold high hopes for my pictures.

I have a couple of really good Autumn shots I’m hoping will get some votes (have more than 3 possibles so the rest are B’s), and I know which outing I’m using for the next contest, but the two after that I’m thus far lost on and will hope to have some ideas by the time they roll around.

Speaking of voters, what a close contest, eh? I know it’s still relatively early, but there’s usually just one or two contenders by now for the top couple of spots. But this week there’s only 5 votes separating 10th from 1st!

No doubt. It still hurts when something I think is great tanks, but I try and remember the format and the medium – it’s not exactly set up for subtlety and voters don’t have time to ponder each and every picture. If it doesn’t have immediate ‘grab’ in a 640x format nestled in among a few hundred other pictures, it’s likely to get overlooked. Add to that the (hunch of mine) that an increasing number of people are only voting for a handful of pics any given contest these days and… well, for the most part I’m happy with the stuff I put up, and I get comments and complements outside the contest pages now and then, which is nice.

Amen to all this. What I post for contests anymore isn’t always what I liked best for a contest theme–it’s what looks best in the smaller format. My domain server statistics back up the fact that most people don’t even look at the larger size versions–those might get 50 views. The site images, however, get hundreds, sometimes over a thousand. Of couse, a lot of those views are fellow farktographers going back to clickity on the voting numbers, but the difference is still significant.

And I’m learning to be happy with the votes I get, win or fail. So long as I have just one that does well, I can be a happy camper. This week I’m doing pretty well with all three, which has never happened before. I’m hoping at least one ends up in the top ten, but ya never know.

i think my somewhat crappy shots took away from what i had. while the editor did ok a better shot would have helped. but i found it in the attic about 2 hours before the contest and i had other stuff to do in that time. the cameras idea again had poor setup but was a good idea. it finished 96th.

but going strictly by votes all three did better this week that what i’ve been averaging so …

Congrats to both, for sure, but especially so to EdenLiesObscured, for that Farktographer has never come even close to #1 and I’m sure he/she is just stoked about it. How exciting to break the top ten for the first time with #1! It was an awesome photo.

/edit to add: Proof that even someone who hasn’t ever done well can win in Farktography’s contests.

I think it’s more indicative that posting after the thread goes green doesn’t necessarily hurt your chances with voting if you have a good photo. ELO isn’t a TF’er and always posts after midnight–this time going on nearly 1am. I’ve seen him post later and do fairly well, too.

That’s also true. And I will, starting next week, see how my results differ. I start work at 6:15pm Wednesdays, and now that DST is over (which we don’t observe here), I’ll not often be able to get my pictures uploaded right away–especially when the person posting the contest link fall asleep, crashes their computer, has to rescue a small child from a pool, etc. and doesn’t get the link up on time. (Life happens.)

Much as I like doing well in the contests, the job comes first. I’ve also seen Ranger Joe do very well posting at later times fairly often. U-man, as well.