It is the last Monday of the month and on the last Monday of the month I like to revisit our Frequently Asked Questions. Who asks these questions? I mostly ask them of myself. But that isn’t a Frequently Asked Question. But as we are heading into a new year, I’m going to update and tackle the FAQ in a slightly different direction. Here is the FAQ:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE
Who are your favorite submitters?
Obviously all of you are my favorites. But the real ones do 4 things.
1. Submit by Sunday night. (Yes, the deadline is 11 AM, but we’re talking about the real ones.)
2. Submit in the correct format. (That is .jpg or .png. Notice, not listed is .heic. I get it. You are a big time Apple fanboy. But .heic images have to be converted. Please save me from having to convert your images!)
3. Their submission communication includes that the picture is for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE and isn’t just some random image that they are sending me to share about their life, hopes, and dreams.
4. Their submission communication includes where the picture was taken.
Here is an example of a PERFECT submission text message:
Here is an example of a PERFECT submission email:
Here is an example of why size matters:
This isn’t to single Mary out. It is just an example I have from the week I wrote this template. Those are great pictures, but they can barely be seen. Remember that the “suggested” minimum resolution is 1280 pixels x 853 pixels for a 4 x 6 image. Don’t overcrop.* Check your email and text message settings. Are they resizing your images?
Is this a competition?
NO. It is a challenge. There are no winners and losers. Well the people that don’t participate are losers.
Is there a limit to the number of submissions I can have each week?
Yes. That limit is 2. If you send me more than 2, I will post the first 2 that you send. I’m not trying to harsh your photography buzz, but any more than that starts to overwhelm the other submissions and it takes me about 5 minutes to take a picture from my inbox to code it on the website. So I have to manage my workload.
If you are going to submit more than one picture, I strongly urge you to choose completely different subjects for each submission. If you are submitting multiple pictures of the same subject, make sure that each picture is saying something unique.
If I start to average 45 participants a week, I will lower the limit to 1.
Do you ever question whether somebody’s submission fits the theme?
Meh. Only if I think somebody is clearly confusing this week’s theme with last week or next week’s theme. Otherwise, if the submission makes sense in your head, that is good enough for me. However, I would urge you to not try to fit your favorite subject into the theme every week. This isn’t a challenge to share a picture every week of your kid or your business or your pet. It is a challenge to take pictures of different things every week. Which isn’t to say subjects can’t be repeated, but you shouldn’t become reliant on the same ones.
Why can’t I submit after 11 AM on Mondays if the post doesn’t publish until 12:01 PM?
I go to lunch at 11 AM. I leave my office. I’m not near a computer. At 11 AM I hit “Schedule” and then I go throw food down my throat. 167 hours is more than enough time to send a submission. Okay, 166 hours and 59 minutes. You got me.
When will you start accepting suggestions for next year’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE themes?
I will take suggestions only and ONLY in the comments sections of the THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE posts the last week of October and the 1st week of November.
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HOLIDAYS! What a great theme! But did enough people holiday it up to make it a popular theme? You will have to keep scrolling to find out!
As of 12:01 PM on Monday, January 20, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks (ignore everything in parentheses):
1-Maven Lockner – 1 week
*2-Mary Green – 2 weeks
3-Becky Parmelee – 2 weeks
*4-Sabas Hernandez – 3 weeks
5-Monica Jennings – 3 weeks
*6-Deanna McClain – 3 weeks
7-Alexis Stensland – 3 weeks
*8-Deb Powers – 21 weeks
9-Willy McAlpine – 27 weeks
10-Mike Vest – 35 weeks
11-Lowell Davis – 55 weeks
12-Brandon Kahler – 56 weeks
*13-Scott Degeneffe – 74 weeks
14-Sheri Fakhouri – 84 weeks
15-Logan Kahler – 85 weeks
*16-Nathanial Brown – 85 weeks
*17-Tamara Peterson – 97 weeks
*18-Mindi Terrell – 101 weeks
*19-Linda Bennett – 130 weeks
20-Sarah Toot – 131 weeks
21-Angie DeWaard – 134 weeks
22-Dawn Krause – 139 weeks
23-Kim Barker – 145 weeks
*24-Joe Duff – 146 weeks
*25-Teresa Kahler – 157 weeks
*26-Carla Stensland – 157 weeks
27-Micky Augustin – 159 weeks
*28-Andy Sharp – 160 weeks
29-Bill Wentworth – 161 weeks
30-Cathie Morton – 165 weeks
31-Elizabeth Nordeen – 166 weeks
32-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 168 weeks
33-Kio Dettman – 170 weeks
Here is the list of rules for Year 12 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE:
1. The picture must be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch and take pictures challenge!
2. There is a limit of 2 submissions per person per theme. If you send me more than 2, I will use the first 2 that you submit. If you submit 2 pictures, make sure they are of different subjects.
3. Deadline to submit your submission is 11 AM Central Time the following Monday. But that is a deadline. Pictures can be submitted as soon as you take them.
4. To be considered the photographer of an image, you have to be the one that clicks the shutter. If you hand your camera over to somebody else to take a picture of you, you are NOT the photographer of that image.
5. No screen captures. This is a photography challenge. Not a “look at what I found on the internet” challenge.
6. Please include the location of where the picture was taken with your submission.
There are still 2 ways to submit:
1. Email your submission to bennett@photography139.com.
2. Text your submission to my Google Pixel 8 Pro.
But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks or the rules of the challenge or how to submit. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:
Kio Dettman (Boone, Iowa) – 171 weeks
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Southridge Hy-Vee – Des Moines, Iowa) – 169 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 167 weeks
Cathie Morton (Norwalk, Iowa) – 166 weeks
Bill Wentworth (Omaha, Nebraska) – 162 weeks
Andy Sharp (Boone, Iowa) – 161 weeks
Micky Augustin (Carlisle, Iowa) – 160 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Hilton Coliseum – Ames, Iowa) – 158 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Hilton Coliseum – Ames, Iowa)
Carla Stensland (Ogden, Iowa) – 158 weeks
Joe Duff (Houston, Texas) – 147 weeks
Joe Duff (Houston, Texas)
Kim Barker (Ames, Iowa) – 146 weeks
Dawn Krause (Boone, Iowa) – 140 weeks
Angie DeWaard (Chicago, Illinois) – 135 weeks
Sarah Toot (E. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania) – 132 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 131 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa) – 102 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Iowa)
Tamara Peterson (Iowa) – 98 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Boone, Iowa) – 87 weeks
Logan Kahler (Boone, Iowa)- 86 weeks
Sheri Fakhouri (Iowa) – 85 weeks
Scott Degeneffe (Marshalltown, Iowa) – 75 weeks
Brandon Kahler (Iowa) – 57 weeks
Lowell Davis (Boone High School – Boone, Iowa) – 56 weeks
Lowell Davis (Boone Middle School – Boone, Iowa)
Mike Vest (Madrid, Iowa) – 36 weeks
Willy McAlpine (Vina del mar, Chile) – 28 weeks
Deb Powers (Ankeny, Iowa) – 22 weeks
Deb Powers (Ankeny, Iowa)
Deanna McClain (Urbandale, Iowa) – 4 weeks
Deanna McClain (Perry, Iowa)
Monica Jennings (Iowa) – 4 weeks
Sabas Hernandez (Ankeny, Iowa) – 4 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Ogden, Iowa) – 4 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Boone, Iowa)
Becky Parmelee (Bella Vista, Arkansas) – 3 weeks
Mary Green (Manchester, Iowa) – 3 weeks
Mary Green (Manchester, Iowa)
Michelle Haupt (Saint Paul, Minnesota) – 1 week
Christopher D. Bennett (Boone, Iowa)
34 participants this week. Seem stuck on that number, but at least it isn’t going down!
There were submissions this week taken in the following places:
+ Arkansas (1)
+ Chile (1)
+ Illinois (1)
+ Iowa (33)
+ Kansas (1)
+ Minnesota (1)
+ Nebraska (1)
+ Pennsylvania (1)
+ Texas (2)
Thanks to Angie’s trip, we were able to add Illinois to the Year 12 Photography 139 Submission Map!
Here is the Year 12 list of places where submissions have been taken (submissions taken in each places):
+ Arkansas (3)
+ Illinois (1)
+ Iowa (99)
+ Kansas (4)
+ Maryland (1)
+ Minnesota (2)
+ Nebraska (5)
+ Ohio (1)
+ Pennsylvania (4)
+ Texas (5)
+ Washington D.C. (1)
+ Wisconsin (2)
+ Chile (2)
There were no major milestones reached this week. The only streak snapped was Maven’s. She couldn’t build on last week’s submission and her streak is over before it began.
Enough dwelling on the past! Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:
SNEAK INTO THEATER (SUGGESTED BY ANDY SHARP)
SNEAK INTO THEATER! What a great theme for Year 12 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
You don’t necessarily need to sneak something into a theater and photograph it. I wouldn’t ask anybody to break the law. Just photograph something you would sneak into a theater. Even if it is just your friend’s basement theater.
I look forward to seeing your interpretation!
PHOTOGRAPHY TIP OF THE WEEK
Last week we discussed how the exposure of an image is dictated by the EXPOSURE TRIANGLE. The first leg of that triangle is ISO. ISO stands for the incredible boring “International Organization for Standardization”. Why it isn’t IOS instead of ISO is an excellent question. Prior to a standard set of light sensitivity being set in 1974 there were multiple standards. Mainly ASA and DIN. But what you need to know about ISO isn’t the year it was birthed into this world. The first thing you need to know is that ISO is a rating of how sensitive to light your camera sensor is. The second thing is… well, we will cover that next Monday.
That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will see your idea of SNEAK INTO THEATER in this place that claims to be cinematic next Monday.