How about a photo contest?

Has Trailspace ever held a photo contest before? That might be fun.

Cool idea, Trouthunter. There are some great photos out there by our members.

We could do it as a vote by members, maybe anonymously.

How would we submit them? Place them under our post or something?

I knew Gary would be interested in this!

I'll let you know when we figure out how we'll handle it. I promise we shall publicize it well on the site.

Great suggestion trouthunter. I was also thinking maybe an IM option would be a nice feature. It might be beneficial in the aspect of members getting together and getting out on the trail/etc.

I at first thought that this may turn the site into something a lil more like the other social sites out there(not saying any names)but then I looked at it as the topic of conversation is alot more focused. We are all here with similar interests(gear Q&A, experiences, etc.) Plus the individuals on Trailspace act and are alot more mature/respectful than your typical social site.

For that matter maybe a mailbox feature may be an option...Possibly even a video area where members can download video clips of gear reviews/demonstration or footage of their journeys etc.?

Just throwing a few ideas out there. I have a feeling that these ideas have probably already been explored though.

I'll start exploring the photo contest idea with my esteemed colleagues here at Trailspace.

Rick, yes, you're right we need a private messaging feature, and it's something we're putting near the top of the to-do list.

I guess I got something right... Woo-hoo.... Thank Alicia, guess it just made a lil sense to me. My brain isn't that big but every now & then it does a lil work. ;) ....but when it works it works well....

I love the ideal. I look through the new photos everyday.

I just wanted everyone to know this idea is not forgotten. I'm planning to announce it in either the February or possibly March newsletter (leaning earlier though).

I'll try to drum up some prizes to make it interesting too.

Here's my general thought of how to do it:

1. Have members submit their own outdoor photos (capped at a certain number per person) and ideally have them somewhere viewable by everyone.

2. If we have a lot, we "officials" at Trailspace will serve as first round judges and winnow the entries down to a manageable number.

3. We announce the ones that are selected and allow members to vote on their favorites.

4. We announce winners and give out some prizes.

If you have thoughts, preferences, suggestions, please feel free to post them here and we'll consider them all.

Thanks.

If It's not too much trouble, a few categories would be nice, but I think we could all have fun regardless!

Thanks.

Thanks for that suggestion, Trouthunter. I was considering the same exact thing, so it's good to know we're on the same wavelength.

How about these three: landscape, ones w/people (there should be a better name for that), and wildlife?

I'm also thinking, no names shown by the photos when people vote, so we have some additional objectivity.

I think its a great idea as well. Alicia great thoughts on how this will pan out and the anonymity will make it very interesting but I have a question. If we submit them through our profile page won't there be a direct link to the individual that posted the pic or will there be a separate area on the home page where one can post the pic? Maybe registered by email? Just curious.

One way would be to put the selected photos in a folder on Picasa or other photo site and send a link or E-mail invitation to Trailspace. Picasa has a feature that lets you do this quite easily.

A direct upload of a photo file to Trailspace by the photographer may be less work for Trailspace though and I'm sure that should be easy to set up.

You could limit the amount of images to like 5, cuase if you get like 20 or more members posting many more than that it will be a hard amount to judge.

Catagories: landscape, flora and fauna, portrait or group shot, seascape, seasons, etc?

Sounds fun! I'm in for this!

Any word on the contest, or did I miss out?

You haven't missed out. We will spread the word far and wide as soon as it opens up.

Here's the advance plan:

February newsletter (next week): announce the upcoming Trailspace photo contest, so people can have fair warning to start taking or choosing their photos.

mid-March: Contest opens for submissions.

Submissions will probably work this way:

1) members upload their pictures to their profile (as usual) and then

2) include them in a post in one of three threads that we will set up in the Forums: Photo Contest: Landscape; Photo Contest: Wildlife; Photo Contest: Outdoorsy People.

Members will be able to submit photos (capped at five or so) for two weeks (up to maybe one month). Then we'll close down submissions in April and let the voting and ranking begin!

April: Trailspace members will be able to rank/vote their favorite pictures over a certain time period. After the voting/ranking period is done, the top ranked photos in each category will earn prizes for the photographers. Hurray!

I hope that's enough info for now. I promise everyone will know as soon as we're open for submissions next month. In the meantime, take those pictures and think about which ones you'll want to submit.

Great idea, It's lots of fun to look at other members adventures in pictures. And I'm sure some people have some real heavy artillery (exotic locations and harrowing poses).

I am in! Time to start digging through my thousands of photos and looking the the "money shots".

Will the photos be presented anonymously? Might be better to keep it unbiased.

Great. I think it will be fun.

I wanted to do it anonymously, but it may be too much trouble this first time out. If there's a relatively easy way to do so on our end (without me having to sit around uploading people's pictures for them) we'll consider it.

Only members will get to vote, and I think they'll be limited to one vote/ranking per picture, to keep it fair.

I have mine, just waiting for the contest to begin.

Ha...Gary's poised for the attack! Best to ya Gary.

But I have so many, I will be hardpressed to search for my best of my best.

I remember once going thru 10,000 slides for two weeks to enter 5 in my hometowns county fair. Now I have 10 times that many and more.

Barn on Mormon Row and the Tetons Summer 2008

Nice shot Gary.

In case anyone missed it, the photo contest is open for submissions now through March 31. Voting by members starts April 1.

Contest rules and information

Forums to enter submissions

There's just over a day left to enter the photo contest! It closes tomorrow night (Wednesday, March 31).

Trouthunter, you were the genius who gets credit for this contest. Are you going to throw your hat into the ring?

I'm looking forward to voting. I scanned through all the pictures today and there are some really nice ones. I like seeing what other people have seen.

Thanks Alicia, I'm just getting started with photography and was eager to see other members photos, and boy, they are nice!

I do not yet have anything contest worthy, but I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the photos posted, & I still have some to look at yet.

Nice work guys.

Voting is active now through April 14.

It's quite simple.

Here's the info: http://www.trailspace.com/blog/2010/04/01/voting-photo-contest.html

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first Trailspace member photo contest. The voting period has ended and we will be announcing the winners shortly. (While members can still rank photos on the site, only votes cast during the voting period will count in contest results.)

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