[CauseISaidSo]

Thanks Els. Did not see that one coming at all.

Congrats to linguine on the combined win and to lokisbong on another fine showing (that’s 6 top tens in the last quarter now). The Weekly Reports post has been updated with the latest stats.

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sleeping, love that railroad tracks shot.

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… (hey, look, cheap labour!) …

We’re too late. They’ve already got to him. 🙁 Damn England and their overabundance of u’s! 😉

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Where is that, chup? Agree with ‘guine, that’s a nice one, on par with your usual high pano standards. Is there some light tone mapping in there as well?

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The “upside-down” part of the URL should’ve been the clue. It was orionid, in the umop 3p!sdn contest, in which he took 3rd place. His original is here.

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So I was showing the contest to a friend today and he didn’t notice until I pointed it out that my 3rd entry (“impossible gateway”) is also an optical illusion. I thought the title text implied it, but maybe I was wrong. Did y’all catch that or should I have been more explicit?

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Thanks fluffy. If you’d have given me a heads up, I would’ve added “as seen below” to my “Inspiration for..” line. 😉

I think the illusion would’ve been better if I had built the step towers tall enough so that the table surface wasn’t visible in the center. But, I didn’t have enough legos, so it is what it is.

[CauseISaidSo]

Thought I was going to have to sit this one out, too, which would’ve been embarassing as I’m OBO’ing for Pope Larry. But yesterday my wonderful wife asked about the next contest, encouraged me to blow off work for a night, and dug out the Lego box from storage (our youngest is just a couple of months from driving so they haven’t seen any action in a while). So, I’ve got two new shots and one archive for this one. I reviewed my Bibliostats history and discovered this is the first contest I’ve specifically shot for since Urban Art (Scanner as Camera, if you want to count that) in June of last year! 😯

Anyway, I’m excited to see how the new shots fare, so can’t wait for this one! Woot!

[CauseISaidSo]

Well, this contest was a bit of a record-setter. It’s the new #1 in lowest # of entrants (17) and lowest total votes (302), edging out the previous records of 18 entrants (Barbie and Ken) and 333 votes (Pinhole Camera).

I don’t think that reflects on the quality of the theme; I think maybe there’s just a perfect storm of regulars who are busy with real life situations. That’s the case for me; right now (and for the past few months), if it isn’t amenable to a quick archive dive (and sometimes regardless), I just can’t do it. I’m only here posting today because I’m unwinding from 2 weeks on the road. (Not looking for sympathy; that’s just the facts, Jack.)

So while I had a few minutes today, I put together some charts to try to gauge the overall health of the contests. The following charts cover all contests starting when the rules were standardized at #7 and show the total Entrants, Entries, and Votes. Each chart has an overall average line as well as sliding quarter and sliding year average lines. For those unfamiliar with sliding averages, they’re basically a way of looking at recent short-term trends as opposed to the long-term view shown by the overall average; i.e., the sliding averages forecast where the overall overage is headed if the recent trends continue.

• Entrants chart
• Entries chart
• Votes chart

You can see from the SQ average line that all 3 stats have taken a precipitous dive starting late last year. I also found it interesting that while the number of entrants has steadily declined, the number of entries declined only slightly (even rising sometimes) and the average number of votes has actually steadily increased. Until recently, that is. The overall average total votes peaked at 1574 on Oct 26, 2011 and has been slowly declining since.

What’s the cause? Is the recent downturn a foreboding omen or just a “market correction”? Is it related to the voting changes, have we just had a spate of less open themes, or is everyone just too busy? Where have some of our past regulars gone (LeicaLens/No Catchy Nickname and Uranus come to mind)? I have no answers, so all opinions welcome…

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Congrats to fluffybunny on the sweep of both individual and combined. The Weekly Reports post has been updated with the latest stats.

We had 4 unvotes Thurs evening this week (it’s gotta just be someone not paying attention, right?):

User=kestrana, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430137, ScanID=3075701, Time=2012-03-08 20:30:00, Votes=11, Place=2
User=kestrana, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430137, ScanID=3075740, Time=2012-03-08 20:45:00, Votes=10, Place=4

User=Linguine, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430121, ScanID=3075719, Time=2012-03-08 20:30:00, Votes=5, Place=21
User=Linguine, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430121, ScanID=3075760, Time=2012-03-08 20:45:00, Votes=4, Place=25

User=orionid, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430091, ScanID=3075706, Time=2012-03-08 20:30:00, Votes=8, Place=8
User=orionid, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430091, ScanID=3075749, Time=2012-03-08 20:45:00, Votes=7, Place=12

User=Yugoboy, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430089, ScanID=3075722, Time=2012-03-08 20:30:00, Votes=5, Place=21
User=Yugoboy, ContestID=357, EntryID=75430089, ScanID=3075762, Time=2012-03-08 20:45:00, Votes=4, Place=25

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There are two benefits to RAW files that lead me to shoot exclusively in RAW:

1. Wider dynamic range. RAW files are generally about 12 bits per channel, while JPGs are 8 bits. This allows you to pull out a usable picture from what might otherwise be a throwaway. Probably isn’t an issue for most of you ;), but it’s saved at least a couple of my shots.
2. Lossless editing. The “recipe” (as Canon calls it) of modifications and curve adjustments is stored separately within the RAW file and you can always revert to SOOC. Re-editiing causes no loss in quality, no matter how many times, whereas each time a JPG is saved, some detail is lost.

I know many of you run a Linux variant so this isn’t applicable, but for those who just use JPG for thumbnails and run Windows XP or later, I highly recommend the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack which is reasonably (IMHO) priced at $14.95. It will allow you to view RAW files from most manufacturers as thumbnails in Explorer or as full-size images in Windows Photo Viewer.

There’s a free codec pack from Microsoft for Windows 7 for viewing Canon and Nikon RAW files, but it’s only for 32-bit systems, whereas the FPV codec works with more files and 64-bit O/S’s. I bought the combo pack that also includes their picture viewer, which eliminates the color matching issues that Windows Photo Viewer has. (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with them other than being a customer.)

[CauseISaidSo]

Congrats to Ranger Joe/cameraflage on the sweep of individual and combined wins. The Weekly Reports post has been updated with the latest stats.

There were 3 unvotes this week but they happened shortly after the contest opened, so I doubt they were intentional or had any affect on final outcomes:

User=Ennuipoet, ContestID=356, EntryID=75287283, ScanID=3036660, Time=2012-03-01 03:30:00, Votes=4, Place=17
User=Ennuipoet, ContestID=356, EntryID=75287283, ScanID=3036771, Time=2012-03-01 03:45:00, Votes=3, Place=44

User=Pope Larry II, ContestID=356, EntryID=75287293, ScanID=3036680, Time=2012-03-01 03:30:00, Votes=3, Place=42
User=Pope Larry II, ContestID=356, EntryID=75287293, ScanID=3036792, Time=2012-03-01 03:45:00, Votes=2, Place=59

User=sleeping, ContestID=356, EntryID=75287289, ScanID=3036639, Time=2012-03-01 03:30:00, Votes=6, Place=7
User=sleeping, ContestID=356, EntryID=75287289, ScanID=3036733, Time=2012-03-01 03:45:00, Votes=5, Place=10

[CauseISaidSo]

Too freaking funny, ennui. Have you been into the Jamesons again? 🙂

I wasn’t sure about the flash on the 5DII – I saw something mentioned in the comments section about it disappearing on this model. There are also all kinds of comments about the features you mention and how those make it a fairly significant upgrade, so I guess I can understand a little increase, but that’s a 40% increase, fer cryin’ out loud!

[CauseISaidSo]

Well, it’s here and available for pre-order. In addition to whatever other improvements/changes, they apparently removed the on-camera flash and increased the price to $3500. The flash, not so big a deal. The $1K increase in price over the 5DII – really big freaking deal. WT-F’ing-F?

[CauseISaidSo]

Sweet, thanks, Pope. PM me your details whenever you’re ready. Just to make sure I’m clear, you’re talking about Legos and Curves, right?

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