Picture of the Month 4 August 2009

[Greg B]

Thank you to those who made a selection for Picture of the Month. I hope
you found the process interesting - I think that looking through images to
make a selection is a bit different to looking through them just for the fun of it.

No image received more than one "vote", so it is a fourteen way tie. All of the
following are the winner.

So, in absolutely no particular order, here are the winning selections for
Picture of the Month.

And a personal observation from me - we have members doing some great
photography here, with diverse styles and subjects. Outstanding.

(There were a number of very valid observations about the difficulty of
making a PotM selection in the manner prescribed this time round.
If we do this again, we will certainly come up with a more user friendly
process. Thank you for the interest and comments in the original thread)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - Bob G



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37042

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - Old Bob



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37001

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer – adame



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36992

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - colin_12



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36908

I chose this one because if its clarity, unusualness, separation from
background, and the mundaneness of its location. I probably walked
straight past it & didn't see it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - Frankenstein



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=36791

I love the mood evoked by the photo as well as the use of light and
mist to create depth in the picture.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer – adame



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36958

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - auxr8220



http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - firsty



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36771

I have selected the second image because it is so unusual as a sporting
image, a great idea well executed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - iposiniditos



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36795

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - Rooz



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36973

It's not your normal picture, it's fun and the lighting is brilliant.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - iposiniditos



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36796

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - biggerry



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=37009

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer - Bob G



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36855

For me think this shot captures the ‘feeling of the moment’, beautiful intensity
of romantic colours, water timing beautifully soft and the moon peeking through
the clouds reflected below

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photographer – darklightphotography



Original thread - http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36898

[darklightphotography]

It's good to see my pic among such company. There's some really fine work here.

Kevin

[gstark]

Some truly wonderful images there.

Thanx all who voted, and thanx, Greg, for taking the time, the trouble, and the effort, to organise this.

What's interesting for me is that, in looking at these images, how many of them I'd already forgotten.

I like the concept, I don't like that it's difficult to review and select the images. If we do this again, then we will need to address the selection processes.

[Mr Darcy]

Congratulations all. They are all worthy. I must admit that when I was reviewing pictures for POTM, I missed several of these. Would I have voted differently? Not sure. It was a difficult call as was.

I do find it interesting to note that only one of the POTM pictures also made POTW. I suspect that says something about the quality of all the pictures posted here. And about taste and the lack of any quantitative standard when making any "Best" award. Strobist's recent Bootcamp winner had at least one "who chose this awful picture?" comment.

[gstark]

I do find it interesting to note that only one of the POTM pictures also made POTW. I suspect that says something about the quality of all the pictures posted here. And about taste and the lack of any quantitative standard when making any "Best" award. Strobist's recent Bootcamp winner had at least one "who chose this awful picture?" comment.

Just to clarify, please remember that here (I cannot speak about other sites) our PotW award has nothing to do with any meaning of "best". It is whatever takes the selector's fancy, for whatever reason, at that time.

[Mr Darcy]

I do find it interesting to note that only one of the POTM pictures also made POTW. I suspect that says something about the quality of all the pictures posted here. And about taste and the lack of any quantitative standard when making any "Best" award. Strobist's recent Bootcamp winner had at least one "who chose this awful picture?" comment.

Just to clarify, please remember that here (I cannot speak about other sites) our PotW award has nothing to do with any meaning of "best". It is whatever takes the selector's fancy, for whatever reason, at that time.

Wrist slap noted :)
(BBCode is off for some reason!)

Edit - Not any more, you just have to deselect the Disable BBC box. Greg B

[sirhc55]

I have to agree that the quality of these photographs far exceeds many that I have seen on other sites. I would go so far as to say that they exceed even many of the challenge submissions on this very forum

[Greg B]

I do find it interesting to note that only one of the POTM pictures also made POTW. I suspect that says something about the quality of all the pictures posted here. And about taste and the lack of any quantitative standard when making any "Best" award. Strobist's recent Bootcamp winner had at least one "who chose this awful picture?" comment.

Just to clarify, please remember that here (I cannot speak about other sites) our PotW award has nothing to do with any meaning of "best". It is whatever takes the selector's fancy, for whatever reason, at that time.

This is a critical and important point. The PotW is not and has never been meant as a selection of "the best"
by any criteria. As such, I think it is considerably more interesting. As Gary says, "It is whatever takes the selector's
fancy, for whatever reason, at that time" and that is the strength of it in my view. We are, after all, here to enjoy ourselves in the pursuit of our love of photography.

[ozimax]

These images are outstanding. Makes me want to give the whole thing away. I can't compete with these. Thankfully we're not competing, just enjoying these superb images.

I must give special mention to #1 and the black/white dog photo as photos that arrested my attention for some time.

Ozi.

[Frankenstein]

What a shock to see one of my pics selected! I completely forgot that I posted something this month.

I agree with others' comments about the difficulty in reviewing and selecting a month's worth of images. I considered doing it, but I just couldn't see how I could fairly review even a small portion of those images posted, so I didn't bother. Which now makes me feel rather weak since someone else did bother and picked my shot (excellent choice, BTW!)

It's a great concept but an easier method of reviewing the images is needed.

And I also agree that the quality of the images is great and reflects all of the work posted on this site - everyone deserves a big pat on the back.

Frank

[biggerry]

Well i was expecting a few more than 14 votes in total, but hey better than a kick in the bum right :)

I did not find much difficultly in reviewing and selecting an image to vote for, however i did set aside a good 0.5 hour to have a troll through them, it is certianly not teh most time effective way to do it but certianly gets me looking though the old posts and i did enjoy picking up on posts that I had missed during the month.

Maybe some way of members nominating a photo for shortlisting then it goes into a voting/poll post for the final POTM/POTW....

congrads to all involved, in particular those who voted AND added some comments (my hats off to yas), I love to see the comments and thought processes behind why people like a particular picture.

Also where is this said 'you just have to deselect the Disable BBC box' ?

[surenj]

Well i was expecting a few more than 14 votes in total, but hey better than a kick in the bum right

Due to the selection difficulties, I was expecting less! 14 is actually quite a good number IMHO.

[CraigVTR]

Well done to all of those selected and the people who voted. I took about 0.5 hrs as wel to nail down my selection but that was a bit of a rushed look and I had promised myself I would not procrastinate. Even when trying to go through all the images for the month I did actually miss a couple. I have also noticed there were three members who had two photos each nominated, Bob G, Adame and iposiniditos, well done guys go to the top of the winners list.

Wrist slap noted
(BBCode is off for some reason!)
Edit - Not any more, you just have to deselect the Disable BBC box. Greg B

Just noticed my bbcode is now off, strange, will have to go and fix it.

[colin_12]

Thanks to all who took the time for this.
I will have to remember to put in a comment next time as it was great to read the why the image was chosen.

[Greg B]

Occasionally you will see a post where the poster has used, for example,
[quo.te] test test [/quo.te] (that dot . is in there so the code won't work for the purposes of this demonstration)

and it looks like that instead of

test test

This happens because "Disable BBCode" has been selected in the options area at the bottom
of the post. If remove the tick in the box, (ie deselect Disable BBCode), the BB Code will work.

You can set the default in your User Control Panel.

- Go to User Control Panel
- Go to Board Preferences
- Go to Edit posting defaults
- tick the box for Enable BBCode by default

BBCode will then be enabled in all of your posts - you can disable it for a particular post by deselecting
"Disable BBCode" for that post.

My suggestion is that you enable BBCode by default in your User Control Panel and just leave it
that way for all your posts.

[CraigVTR]

Off topic for the thread but, if I post in this thread bbcode is off and the option to turn it back on is missing. I can only see;

Do not automatically parse URLs
Notify me when a reply is posted

However, when I post in another thread all is normal. Very confused.

[Mr Darcy]

EDIT: Conveniently, It happened to this post, so I (a) cleaned it up and (b) took a screen grab. Will post in a wee while ( I need to convert to jpg & upload first)

>>This happens because "Disable BBCode" has been selected in the options area at the bottom
>>of the post. If remove the tick in the box, (ie deselect Disable BBCode), the BB Code will work.

Sorry Greg,
but this is not the case.
Sometimes, but only sometimes, I find like Craig, that BBCode is turned off when I reply to a post. All the smilies are missing and so on.
I DO have BBCode and Smilies turned on by default, but when this happens I do NOT get the option of turning them back on. It is a bug I have raised before, but it only happens occasionally, so is no real big deal for me.

Usually when it happens, I do not bother to post if I am quoting. or try to rejig the post so that the lack of bells and whistles do not matter.

[gstark]

I DO have BBCode and Smilies turned on by default, but when this happens I do NOT get the option of turning them back on.

Does this perhaps happen in one section of the forum, but not in another?

You probably don't need to make a post to ascertain this; just go into different sections, and try to reply to a post and see what the various options available to you are.

This may be something in the permissions, which can be set by group and/or sub-forum and/or user.

Please let me know if you can identify any specific areas where this is happening.

[Mr Darcy]

>>Does this perhaps happen in one section of the forum, but not in another?
I tried a scatter gun approach to this. Tried half a dozen or so threads in as many sections. Of the areas I tried, the only one where I am affected is the POTW section, and it is consistent there, so I guess you are on the right track, though I do remember one instance where I posted a reply, then posted a second to the same thread & I got the issue in one reply, but not the other. No I do not remember the specifics.

Greg.

[gstark]

Ok, thanks.

For the PotW section, the only people who may create a new post are those who are members of the PotW group. Basically, KMs or better, and some of those to whom an invitation to select a PotW has been made. (Sometimes mods make the post on behalf the invitee, other times the invitee does this themselves, in which case I add them to the group.)

All other members are prevented from making a new post into this section, but may make reply posts.

I suspect that the problem is tied up in some variation between the various groups' permissions, and who, along the way, has made posts.

[CraigVTR]

I just spent a bit of time checking out other threads and it seems this is the only one that disables the bbcode for me.

[mic]

These images are spectacular ! The Apes, absolutely great ! The Moonrise over Dicky, Great ! all great ! I wouldn't be able to pick either ?????????

Give em all a D3 I say.....

Well done all.

Mic.