I apologize

[Snarkasm]

... for falling out of the challenge recently, but my schedule has not been forgiving, and I have nothing to convert my RAWs here in the Netherlands yet.

It sucks and I hate myself, but I just can't pull the time.

There's my excuse. Why the hell have the rest of you stopped taking pictures?

[Koreish]

No camera >.>

[Kwitko]

I've been busy house hunting.

[CB]

I just don't have time every day to spend composing photographs. When I was participating everyday, at the beginning, it was taking 2 hours, or so, of my day everyday. Taking a couple hours out of my day to do a photo each day was fun, but it was simply too much time.

I think it would be better if we only had one theme per week. We would get more, and higher quality submissions per theme.


For example: Yesterday was "churches". I couldn't be arsed to go on a church photo-shoot for that day's photo, but if it had been the theme for the whole week, then I would have made more of a point to try to find the time to fit in a trip to a church sometime during the week.

[Kwitko]

^ this

[QCH]

I agree...

[primesuspect]

The problem that plagues my entire life: depression and lack of motivation.

I started it, was excited about it, now I'm indifferent.

[shwaip]

I've been busy with work-related nonsense this week, unable to leave until late. I didn't have the energy to set up the shots i want to take.

RE schedule:
I don't think switching to weekly will change the participation. Maybe every other day. If you don't have time to shoot for all the days, you don't have to! You can just do one a week.

[Thrax]

Just do what you can and don't do what you can't. I'm not sure what changing it to weekly will solve.

[Gargoyle]

I like the every other day idea. It sucks when I miss a good topic that I have ideas but no time for.

I think reducing it to weekly would reduce the pace too much, and people would forget about it, but keeping it at daily will result in some people feeling under pressure to submit frequently, leading to burnout once the novelty fades.

[shwaip]

also

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[Gargoyle]

also

<embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:155469" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" flashvars="autoPlay=false&dist=http://www.southparkstudios.com&orig=" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000" height="400" width="480">

[Gnome Queen]

I don't think it's terrible to post pictures a day or two late. I think the idea is more to be inspired by the subject for the day, and you should try and post it on time, but if you can't get it in, just post it a day late.

[Koreish]

Except for it's not Timbaland featuring One Republic, dude doesn't even sing other than that retarded background shit. Stoopid youtubes.

[_k_]

maybe if you didn't go to bed at 10 every night

[fatcat]

Except for it's not Timbaland featuring One Republic, dude doesn't even sing other than that retarded background shit. Stoopid youtubes.

except, it's on Timbaland's album, and that song was nothing before he did the remake|remix with them.

the original

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fm0T7_SGee4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fm0T7_SGee4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[Gargoyle]

I don't think it's terrible to post pictures a day or two late. I think the idea is more to be inspired by the subject for the day, and you should try and post it on time, but if you can't get it in, just post it a day late.

I think it's cool to post late in general, but it seems that people are less likely to get feedback that way, since people have tended to put most of their feedback down in one pass when they peruse the entries for the category.

[chrisWhite]

The problem that plagues my entire life: depression and lack of motivation.

Exactly.

Okay, so, I think we're all spending too much time composing and too little time just capturing. Through your camera in your pocket (or your bag if you're shooting a DSLR) and keep in mind what today, tomorrow and maybe the next day's themes are. When you see something that fits somehow snap a few photos and move on. Don't spend more then 5-10 minutes on it. We can get back to pro-photography when we gain some more momentum.

[DocFrazier]

I'm still gonna second moving the themes to every other day or so, like prime i was all about it at first, but with school and other events planned, i got burned real quick. I love photography, i have for a long time. but its kinda hard to remember to take a "good" picture every day.

[primesuspect]

Changing the mechanics of the project isn't going to change anything. I think everybody's overanalyzing it.

If you want to take a picture, take a picture. Skip a day, it's fine. Skip a week, that's fine too.

Repeat a theme if you want. If you want to go back and take a pic you missed, go for it.

The only thing this project is for is to inspire. That is the only goal.

[Gargoyle]

Changing the mechanics of the project isn't going to change anything. I think everybody's overanalyzing it.

You don't have to agree about changing the scheduling, but I'm disappointed that you dismissed the concerns brought up here.

[primesuspect]

I'm not trying to be dismissive. This is not something that anybody is forced to do. The core ideal here is inspiration. I personally don't believe that changing dates and "rules" is going to change inspiration.

[Koreish]

Forgive my dismissiveness of your guys' hobby but Chris is right. As far as I know none of you are making a living off of photography so wasting more than a few minutes for a photo seems a little crazy. If you get a great shot cool, if you didn't, well it is just a hobby. You certainly haven't lost anything by it.

[Thrax]

As an outsider who has not and will not participate in the photography thread (I'm bad at cameras), I bring an outsider's perspective.

Let's say you can only contribute once per week: Why not just shoot for a theme that's a week down the line? How is this in any way different from a theme that only comes once per week?

How does changing the mechanics of the challenge make it any better? Some can shoot daily, some can't; the current schedule accommodates all participants.

I didn't get a dismissive tone from Brian's post at all. I, like him, simply don't see what the big deal is, or how a weekly schedule is any different from a schedule people can already approach weekly.

[CB]

I'm not trying to be dismissive. This is not something that anybody is forced to do. The core ideal here is inspiration. I personally don't believe that changing dates and "rules" is going to change inspiration.

I know, 100% that changing it to weekly would in fact increase my participation per theme, and make me more motivated to participate. I also feel that it would increase general participation per theme, which to me is very important because the themes with the most participation are also the ones with the most feedback, and good discussion. When I see that no one is making any comments (because there are only one or two entries per theme) it decreases my motivation.

I'm just talking about how it effects me personally, but I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way about it.

Sure, I could just pick one day a week to participate, but I would like it better if we all choose the same day.

[Gargoyle]

... the themes with the most participation are also the ones with the most feedback, and good discussion. When I see that no one is making any comments (because there are only one or two entries per theme) it decreases my motivation.

This is my main motivation for wanting to tweak the mechanics.

Beyond that, however, choosing a setup that creates the most participation seems like a good in itself. Thrax, I mean no offense, but suggesting that people take photos well ahead of time goes against most people's nature. Outside of a sudden shift of people's priorities, I don't expect that reminding people to take photos days/weeks ahead of time will increase participation.

[Thrax]

Let's say you make it weekly. Potatoes are next Monday. It's Tuesday today. You either take the picture on that Monday, or some time during the week.

Let's say it's daily. Potatoes are next Monday. It's Tuesday today. You either take the picture on that Monday, or some time during the week.

What's the difference?

[shwaip]

I think that every other day is better because no one is doing every day. This lets us use 1/2 as many themes. It will allow people to better plan things, or take pictures that might have been limited by weather. You can have a day to brainstorm, and a day to set up / take picture.

We can discuss pictures taken every week on the weekend. This will allow people who are late in posting to get feedback too. Immediate feedback is nice, but I feel it squelches creativity by requiring you to take this photo only on one day, where time / conditions may not make this possible. People say "oh, i missed that deadline, no reason for me to try".

[Gnome Queen]

I wouldn't mind doing it every other day, as it would give me a little bit more time to do pictures, but I do agree with Prime's point- this is just inspiration. Take the picture whenever you want to, and post it whenever you can.

I also agree with Thrax's point on taking the photo a week ahead of time. Since I have a film camera, I've been doing that. I took my food picture two weeks before it was due, since I knew it was coming.

That being said, I think the problem is more that people are getting overwhelmed with having so much inspiration, so every other day might be better.

[shwaip]

That being said, I think the problem is more that people are getting overwhelmed with having so much inspiration, so every other day might be better.

I actually think this is a pretty big part. People see all these things on the schedule and they focus on having to take a picture, get overwhelmed and then give up. Not that they couldn't just ignore the schedule, but it's hard to do sometime.

[Gargoyle]

What's the difference?

Whether or not you've been too busy taking pictures of peas, carrots, celery, and roast beef in the meantime. Although I'm not in favor of a weekly scheme, anyway.

I like Shwaip's idea about giving feedback on the week's topics during the weekend. Sure, people are free to do so any time, but having weekly discussion threads (covering 3 or so photo subjects) would probably encourage more discussion as the week was wrapping up.

[LIN]

... for falling out of the challenge recently, but my schedule has not been forgiving, and I have nothing to convert my RAWs here in the Netherlands yet.

It sucks and I hate myself, but I just can't pull the time.

There's my excuse. Why the hell have the rest of you stopped taking pictures?
To be honest, - lack of feedback.

In for weekly discussion threads.

[Snarkasm]

Still waiting to hear back from Marushka, Reyrey, dras, nemi, BH, mondi... let's get everybody's views out there.

[chrisWhite]

I don't feel like Prime was dismissive at all. I'm 50/50 on changing the mechanics, getting constructive feedback is a huge part of making it a community challenge but I also agree with Thrax and Prime that people should contribute when they can and not feel bad about missing some time. Every other day seems like it could be a nice way to meet in the middle but I'm not sure it actually resolves much. Maybe if we had one thread for feedback instead of new ones every day so it isn't as much work to get the thread posted or to seek it out.

The point I was trying to make is that people just need to shoot, and shoot as much as they can. If having elaborate setups is kicking this to the top of your procrastination list and you aren't taking photos because you just can't make a theme work perfectly or you don't have two hours to throw into a shoot then it's counter productive in improving your personal skills. Shooting a lot is the number one way to become a better photographer, doing different kind of shoots, different contexts and setups is secondary to shooting.

Now purely as inspiration, well, then maybe a fewer number of amazing shots is a more inspiring for others, but that's not really my goal in participating.

[GHoosdum]

My participation stopped partially because I was too busy and mostly because I was at a hotel with a poor internet connection, so I couldn't upload anything.

That being said, I like CB's reasoning behind going weekly, to increase participation and discussion and cohesion of the project as a whole.

[primesuspect]

I think people are getting hung up on the date of submission.

Let's just do away with the dates. Missed the opportunity to do a "shoes" picture? Take the photo 3 days later and post it when you can.

I think people are having anxiety about dates, and that's an arbitrary thing we can do away with.

[GHoosdum]

I'm doing that anyway. ;)

But, if we do that, I think we either need a more clear delineation of each photo's topic in the results thread, or separate threads per topic to put the photos into.

[Marushka]

Hi I just read this thread.

So I stopped posting because I lost a bunch of the pics I had taken when my external hard drive decided to die. Shwaip was helping me, so I eventually tried to step up and re take some shots and play and post to old themes.

I really like the format of this challenge. I like having separate threads for each topic. When I see something I like I can go to that thread and say something. I have posted to old threads recently in the comments, and people have definitely been awesome about reading it and checking them out and giving some feedback.

When my time is short, I definitely lack on giving detailed feedback, if any. I will keep trying.

I don't mind the dates, and I just post my late pics in the comments. I kinda like seeing the progression of the pictures in the giant RESULTS thread, and its nice they are kinda grouped by theme and date. Late or early by an hour or day doesnt matter too much.

I assumed the project was going to die here... but I have more ideas for categories if we want to keep going! By my calendar it will end next week. I will post some more ideas and go ahead and change the format how you will.

I will keep posting!

--Laura

[Marushka]

IF people want to change the format of the challenge, 2 new ideas:

1) Just have the challenge be 2 or 3 weeks long, and run it once a season. Next would be the Fall Icrontic Challenge, then the Winter. Reveal the topics a week before the challenge starts. That would seem to match at least the time frame of inspiration and volume we had this time. It still invites people to devote time if they are inspired and people that only have a camera phone or 5 minutes to devote to posting, and there is a clear cut end in sight, and another chance in a few months.

2) Make sundays a KAPOW big theme day. Keep the weekday submissions, but make Sunday something special, maybe we vote on a favorite for that day to motivate people to post, give away 5 icrontic points. Something to make it draw more participation.

Both of those suggestions are to pump the inspiration-which I agree with prime is the problem. I dont see how stopping people from posting daily will make more people want to post...

[Nate_LapT]

I think people are just lazy and just feel like complaining about their lack of submissions. Just submit a photo when you feel like it, not like this is a contest.

[FelixDeSouze]

What's the challenge? :) i'm in!

[Marushka]

There was a photo-a-day challenge back in july/august when people had more free time :) The results thread is one of the sticky ones in the main Photography forum page. You can also find the ideas thread and the other discussion threads for some fun inspiration!