1-week-countdown, and ADA Contest

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd report in on what's going on with the contest with one
week, two weekends, left to go.  As I started writing, another entry just
got uploaded... I am running the photo regen script several times a day
now.  I think this year the electronic uploading is really starting to 
come into its own.  A few entrants have really taken advantage of being 
able to change photos (one of which has been uploading a new master shot 
daily for the last 4 days!).  I have been sending folks who entered via 
e-mail notes saying "consider entering online next year!"

We've got about 30 entries that are "serious" so far (i.e. paid or
complete but not paid).  I suspect that this is more or less what's
happened the last two years as well -- one week ago there were maybe 15
entries, and the previous week there were probably half that many.  I am 
hoping for a similar turnout as last year, if not a big more.  Can always 
hope!

Oh, every person on this list should enter.  Just go over there right now,
take a couple pictures, and scribble down a quick planting plan.
Seriously; I'm going to! 

On the judging front, we have confirmation from both Roger Miller and
Chuck Gadd (after a 2nd prodding), and a rejection from Jeff Senske (who
said he and his brother were ENTERING -- which means we'll probably get
six entries from them again.  Cool).  We also have an "if I have time"  
from Claus Christensen.  My current plan on finding a 4th or 5th is to
wait until the close, and find some winners from previous years who didn't
enter this year.


I also just got my Amano Layout Contest book today.  My tank placed 137th.  
Two things that struck me from looking through the stats: something like
70% of the entries were from Japan, as expected.  But only ONE from
Singapore.  Weird.  In our contest, we get like 3-5 entries from Singapore
(and this year is no exception -- whoop, another one just came in!).  

Likewise, there are 4 from the US, which is really very sad.  I mean,
there was this whole big deal breakout last winter of Arthur Westover and
"art of aquaria", and all the folks who attended the convention last year
& got to see that Amano's a really cool guy... and then... NOTHING?  Not
even the freakin' Senske brothers who worship Amano?  What's up with this?

One possible explanation (aside from the language barrier, intimidation
factor, and $15 entry fee -- which was totally worth it to get the book,
btw):  My photo in Amano's contest positively SUCKED.  I spent 3 months
preparing my tank for this shoot, and even rigged up flash units and a
diffuser on the top & black blinds to get the best possible picture.  I
took some digital photographs with this setup and a friend's Nikon 990
that are truly stunning.  I took some shots on negative film, which came
out pretty nice too.  Then, with the same setup, I shot my slides, the
required medium for Amano's contest.  AWFUL!  saturation sucked, shadows
were too dark to register on the film, highlights washed out.  Overall
yellow tint.  Gak!  But that was what they required, and that's what they
got.

So I like the fact that here on the AGA contest we're letting people shine
without having to be a professional photographer.

The other area which we're going to continue to rock is in the level of
detail available.  The ADA booklet showed detailed results of the first
few entries, then semi-detailed results up to #28, and from then on, a
tiny 1"x2" photo of each of the remaining entries.

I liked the fact that ADA provided a large section on the judging (many
similar criteria to the ones we use!).  This added a bit of human element
to it all.  They had something like a dozen judges doing this thing, and
600 entries (though it appears that 100 entries were disqualified due to
not being 35mm slides).

  - Erik


-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

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