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 if 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.

This isn’t to single Mary out. It is just an example I have from this week. 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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SHOT THROUGH! What a great theme! But how many people got their photography juices in motion? Keep scrolling to find out.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, February 17, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks:

1-Becky Parmelee – 1 week
2-Suzie Brannen – 2 weeks
3-Sara Lockner – 3 weeks
4-Sabas Hernandez – 6 weeks
*5-Monica Jennings – 6 weeks
6-Deanna McClain – 7 weeks
7-Alexis Stensland – 7 weeks
*8-Deb Powers – 25 weeks
9-Willy McAlpine – 30 weeks
10-Mike Vest – 38 weeks
11-Lowell Davis – 59 weeks
12-Brandon Kahler – 60 weeks
*13-Scott Degeneffe – 78 weeks
14-Sheri Fakhouri – 87 weeks
*15-Logan Kahler – 89 weeks
16-Nathanial Brown – 90 weeks
17-Tamara Peterson – 101 weeks
*18-Mindi Terrell – 105 weeks
*19-Linda Bennett – 134 weeks
20-Sarah Toot – 135 weeks
*21-Angie DeWaard – 138 weeks
22-Dawn Krause – 143 weeks
23-Kim Barker – 149 weeks
*24-Joe Duff – 150 weeks
*25-Teresa Kahler – 161 weeks
*26-Carla Stensland – 161 weeks
27-Micky Augustin – 163 weeks
28-Andy Sharp – 164 weeks
29-Bill Wentworth – 165 weeks
30-Cathie Morton – 169 weeks
31-Elizabeth Nordeen – 170 weeks
32-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 172 weeks
33-Kio Dettman – 174 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) – 175 weeks
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Honey Hollow – Iowa) – 173 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 171 weeks
Cathie Morton (Norwalk, Iowa) – 170 weeks
Bill Wentworth (Omaha, Nebraska) – 166 weeks
Andy Sharp (Boone, Iowa) – 165 weeks
Micky Augustin (Colo, Iowa) – 164 weeks
Carla Stensland (Ogden, Iowa) – 162 weeks
Carla Stensland (Ogden, Iowa)
Teresa Kahler (Hilton Coliseum – Ames, Iowa) – 162 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Boone, Iowa)
Joe Duff (Pasadena, Texas) – 151 weeks
Kim Barker (Nevada, Iowa) – 150 weeks
Kim Barker (Ames, Iowa)
Dawn Krause (Boone, Iowa) – 144 weeks
Angie DeWaard (The Breakfast Club – Ankeny, Iowa) – 139 weeks
Sarah Toot (New York City, New York)- 136 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 135 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas)
Mindi Terrell (Urbandale, Iowa) – 106 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Urbandale, Iowa)
Tamara Peterson (Perry, Iowa) – 102 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Boone, Iowa) – 91 weeks
Logan Kahler (Boone, Iowa) – 90 weeks
Sheri Fakhouri (Ankeny, Iowa – 88 weeks
Scott Degeneffe (Boone County, Iowa) – 79 weeks
Brandon Kahler (Story City, Iowa) – 61 weeks
Lowell Davis (Iowa) – 60 weeks
Mike Vest (Madrid, Iowa) – 39 weeks
Mike Vest (Madrid, Iowa)
Willy McAlpline (El Calafate, Argentina) – 31 weeks
Deb Powers (Ankeny, Iowa) – 26 weeks
Deb Powers (Ankeny, Iowa)
Alexis Stensland (Iowa) – 8 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Iowa)
Deanna McClain (Perry, Iowa) – 8 weeks
Sabas Hernandez (Ankeny, Iowa) – 7 weeks
Monica Jennings (Boone, Iowa) – 7 weeks
Suzie Brannen (Perry, Iowa)- 3 weeks
Mary Green (Iowa) – 1 week
Mary Green (Iowa)
Jesse Howard (Boone, Iowa) – 1 week
Jesse Howard (Cedar Falls, Iowa) Christopher D. Bennett (Boone, Iowa)

34 participants again this week! We just can’t shake that number!

There were submissions this week taken in the following places:

• Argentina (1)
• Iowa (38)
• Kansas (2)
• Nebraksa (1)
• New York (1)
• Texas (1)

Thanks to Sarah’s travels, we added New York to the map! Thanks to Willy’s travels we added Argentina to the map!

Here is the Year 12 list of places where submissions have been taken (submissions taken in each places):

• Arkansas (3)
• Illinois (1)
• Iowa (208)
• Kansas (10)
• Maryland (1)
• Missouri (1)
• Minnesota (2)
• Nebraska (8)
• New Jersey (1)
• New York (1)
• Ohio (1)
• Pennsylvania (5)
• Texas (9)
• Washington D.C. (1)
• Wisconsin (2)
• Argentina (1)
• Chile (5)

There were a couple of milestones reached this week. Deb joined the Half Year Streak Club! WooHoo! Mindi joined the 2 Year Streak Club! WooHoo! WooHoo! But it wasn’t all good times. Becky couldn’t build on her submission from last week. Her streak is over before it began. Sara’s streak is kaput at 3 weeks.

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:

BEHIND THE DOOR (SUGGESTED BY CARLA STENSLAND)

BEHIND THE DOOR! What a great theme for Year 12 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

I look forward to seeing your interpretation!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP OF THE WEEK

Aperture directly controls depth of field in photography: a wider aperture (smaller f-number) creates a shallower depth of field, meaning only a small area around the focus point will be sharp, while a smaller aperture (larger f-number) results in a greater depth of field where a larger area will be in focus; essentially, the wider the aperture opening, the less depth of field you have.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will see your idea of BEHIND THE DOOR in this place that hides many things next Monday!