Posted by Austin Booth on January 26, 2011 at 5:10 PM
Ok well I guess I'm not really starving but you get the point. I am currently a student living off of financial aid loans. Unfortunately I wasn't ready for college when I started community college right out of high school and my grades suffered. I have since had a change of attitude and pulled my grades back up to get me into Oregon State University. Unfortunately my overall GPA (although improving every term) is still too low to qualify me for most scholarships. There is one scholarship which is essentially a photo contest that I recently entered. The problem is I need to spam several hundred votes to get myself into the top 200 just to be considered by the judges. There are a lot of horrible snapshot style shots in there so if I can get in I think I may have a chance. The image isn't exactly a nature photo, its more or a "man in nature" photo due to a railroad bridge and train being in the natural setting. Anyway I would appreciate everyone's help in getting me into the running. Here is the link:
Sorry if this is against NPN rules, if so you can delete it. Thanks for voting!
Posted by Luke Ormand on January 26, 2011 at 5:44 PM
I voted. But aren't you a little concerned with the fact that clicking on the image brings up the full size high-res image that anyone can swipe? Is this an oversight? I'm on a 27" iMac and when I clicked on the image it more than took up my whole screen.... Perhaps you can contact the operators and ask them about this.
- Luke
Posted by Richard Ditch on January 26, 2011 at 6:32 PM
Why not give us a link to a web page that confirms this is an actual scholarship program and not just a spam hoax?
Posted by Luke Ormand on January 26, 2011 at 6:40 PM
Rich,
It's "semi-genuine". Mr. Booth is slightly misrepresenting this but there is a little truth to it... and Mr. Booth is an NPN member which holds a little weight. I'd be dubious about the contest operators as they don't give an explanation of what a "scholarship" consists of.... read more here:
Reading a bit further into how the winners are selected I discovered this:
VIRAL ACTIVITY: Sponsor may take into account viral activity as a factor in determining
winners of Contest. Viral Activity is defined as the Contestant who enters the Submission
that gets the most attention across the Internet on sites other than Brickfish.com. To optimize
this activity, Contestants must use the "Publish to," "Post to Websites," "Embed," "Share Link
to" or "Add Link to" tools on Brickfish.com to spread the Submissions, across the Internet to
other sites, including, but not limited to: Facebook, MySpace, myYearbook, LiveJournal,
Tagged, hi5 and Xanga (subject to change at Brickfish’s sole discretion). Viral activity related
to the Entry is tracked by Administrator’s proprietary automated viral ranking system. Several
factors are considered in the Most Viral ranking including the number of sites an entry is
posted to, the number of unique viewers of the entry, and the number of people who have
Page 2shared the entry. Inappropriate sharing activity including spamming or posting content to
irrelevant or inappropriate sites may be grounds for disqualification. The Most Viral Entry
may be declared the Winner, or the Winner may be selected by Judges (based on the ranking
criteria specified in the Prizes section) from among the top Most Viral Entries. The top Most
Viral Entries may also be featured in the Campaign Statistics area on the Campaign Entries
page.
It seems as though Brickfish is trying to get their website as many hits as possible and whoever is the best at doing that will get the nominal prize which pales in comparison to ad revenue and other monies they are pulling in as a result of spamming their site across the internet. Food for Thought Mr. Booth
Posted by Austin Booth on January 26, 2011 at 8:10 PM
Yes it does seem like the purpose is to advertise their website/company but aren't most photo contests intended as advertising for the sponsor? I found the contest from a legitimate scholarship search website recommended by my school, upon further investigation I guess you are right about it not being a real scholarship and just a regular photo contest that anyone can enter. Nonetheless, I am a student and if I did win the contest the money would go towards school and cost of living expenses so it wouldn't be much different than if it was a scholarship.
Posted by Steve Kennedy on January 27, 2011 at 12:21 AM
Good luck Austin!
Posted by Paul DeCesare on January 27, 2011 at 1:08 AM
Austin, shoot weddings on the weekend and your financial woes will be erased. Your wide angle and a 50mm will cut it nicely. Get your feet wet as a Second Shooter, then branch out on your own with simple packages for brides with smaller budgets (we're still talking four figures though). Offer digital-only to keep it simple, many young brides just want to email their wedding photos and post them on FaceBook, some don't even want prints. You can always quit when school is done.
I did vote.
Posted by Luke Ormand on January 27, 2011 at 11:17 AM
Austin, you said:
Yes it does seem like the purpose is to advertise their website/company but aren't most photo contests intended as advertising for the sponsor?
Of course photo contests are used as a way to increase awareness of a company/website and to generate publicity. But, reading the rules of this particular contest, the actual winner is not determined based on how good the photograph is. The breakdown for judging winners is: creativity accounts for 25% and "relevance" counts for 25%, audience support for 25% and viral influence is 25%.
Ok, any photo can be deemed "creative" and the contest is called "my best photo ever" so "relevance" can be applied to every photo. They are really judging on how many people "like" it and how many people you got to go to the website. This particular contest appears to have nothing to do with photographic merit.
I'm not saying that you are wasting your time or anything, I just want you to understand that when you say you think your photo can win because it's better than the snapshots, please understand that how good your photo is has nothing to do with winning the contest.
Additionally, I would be very concerned about the availability of the massive image that shows up when you click on it. I can download that and make a print of it as big as I want basically and hang it on my wall for free and you would never know.
- Luke
Posted by Kate Silvia on January 27, 2011 at 2:08 PM
I voted...good Luck Austin! I agree with Paul D....shoot some weddings or portraits on the weekends and it will help tremendously!
Posted by Kate Silvia on January 27, 2011 at 2:08 PM
I voted...good Luck Austin! I agree with Paul D....shoot some weddings or portraits on the weekends and it will help tremendously!
Discussion
9 replieshttp://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=1280917_77388373&pid=4730860&scid=589
Sorry if this is against NPN rules, if so you can delete it. Thanks for voting!
- Luke
It's "semi-genuine". Mr. Booth is slightly misrepresenting this but there is a little truth to it... and Mr. Booth is an NPN member which holds a little weight. I'd be dubious about the contest operators as they don't give an explanation of what a "scholarship" consists of.... read more here:
My Favorite Photo I've Ever Taken
Reading a bit further into how the winners are selected I discovered this:
It seems as though Brickfish is trying to get their website as many hits as possible and whoever is the best at doing that will get the nominal prize which pales in comparison to ad revenue and other monies they are pulling in as a result of spamming their site across the internet. Food for Thought Mr. Booth
I did vote.
Of course photo contests are used as a way to increase awareness of a company/website and to generate publicity. But, reading the rules of this particular contest, the actual winner is not determined based on how good the photograph is. The breakdown for judging winners is: creativity accounts for 25% and "relevance" counts for 25%, audience support for 25% and viral influence is 25%.
Ok, any photo can be deemed "creative" and the contest is called "my best photo ever" so "relevance" can be applied to every photo. They are really judging on how many people "like" it and how many people you got to go to the website. This particular contest appears to have nothing to do with photographic merit.
I'm not saying that you are wasting your time or anything, I just want you to understand that when you say you think your photo can win because it's better than the snapshots, please understand that how good your photo is has nothing to do with winning the contest.
Additionally, I would be very concerned about the availability of the massive image that shows up when you click on it. I can download that and make a print of it as big as I want basically and hang it on my wall for free and you would never know.
- Luke