P3D Re: Competitions suppressing creativity?

[Michael Watters <mwatters@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

GeorgeT responds:
>Let me see if I get this straight.  Mike Watters had a problem with club
>stereo slide competitions because:

>- Judging was erratic
>- There was a lack of standards in judging
>- Judges were just people handed a judging control and asked to give a score
>- Pictures that he enjoyed the most did not do well
>- Pictures of flowers and scenics "by the rules" or pleasant to the eye,
>  postcard shots did the best

Yeah, that's a pretty fair summary.

>So, he dropped out.

Of club contest entering that is...

>Great Mike!  Since they would hand the judging control to just about
>anyone, did you ever ask to get this control in your own hands?  Did you

Yes, I helped do the judging on several occasions.   Noticed quite often that my marks 

differed significantly from the others (suprise).  Slide judging isn't exactly a
peer pressure sorta thing though.  To make it impartial it's done in secret so you
don't know who's giving what scores.  (The Seattle's clubs judging control automatically
adds the individual scores together).

>by some unwritten rules.  There is even a PSA salon that gives award for the
>best use of soft focus.

You know as well as I that one of the common "rules" of stereo that get
tossed around is that the entire frame must be tack-sharp.  Thus the common
stereophotographer's obscession with low-speed films.

>If your opinion does not agree with that of other judges, that does not
>mean that you are right and they are wrong.  If they like scenics and

Never said that was the case.   All I said was that I wasn't interested in
submitting my stuff to be judged by people who weren't the slightest bit
interested in the sort of thing I liked to do.  


Michael K brings up the issue of objectivity (or lack thereof):

In the Seattle club, attempts were made to state what elements a photo 

should have in order to score well (general technical issue, gotta have 

some stereo to it, etc etc).  I would try to keep these in mind when judging
 (although I will say I would score a basically flat slide as low as possible 

regardless of it's other factors, it's a stereo competition darn it!).  I would 

sit back and watch flat slides do great on other days though.

For a while (don't know if they still do this) the Seattle club was
recognizing the limitations of the contest format and started doing
critique sessions instead.  People would submit photos for everyone
to see and comment on.  These were fairly fun and interesting.
Gave one a chance to get feedback about what people thought of
the images.  Much more useful than a number.

For me it really comes down to this:
   It's just plain not important to me to get pats on the back from others
concerning my photos.  When I first joined a stereo club, I got into that
and actually cared how my photos did in contests.  After a few years
I didn't care anymore.  I'd decided to make photos for myself instead
of others.  If other people liked them, that's fine.  If they didn't, 

that's fine too.  I really don't care.  I continued to bring in slides to
the club to share with others in the open projector time, but I didn't
go out of my way to enter them in contests.   I've found that the open
projector times are MUCH more useful.  It allows you to see what 

others are doing, see what you like, and feed it back into your own
work.  


mike


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