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.
- Submit by Sunday night. (Yes, the deadline is 11 AM, but we’re talking about the real ones.)
- 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!)
- 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.
- 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.
SUNSHINE! 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, April 21, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks:
1-Sara Lockner – 2 weeks
*2-Alexis Stensland – 2 weeks
*3-Suzie Brannen – 3 weeks
4-Sabas Hernandez – 15 weeks
5-Deanna McClain – 15 weeks
*6-Deb Powers – 34 weeks
7-Willy McAlpine – 39 weeks
8-Mike Vest – 47 weeks
9-Lowell Davis – 68 weeks
10-Brandon Kahler – 69 weeks
*11-Scott Degeneffe – 86 weeks
12-Sheri Fakhouri – 96 weeks
13-Logan Kahler – 98 weeks
14-Nathanial Brown – 99 weeks
15-Tamara Peterson – 110 weeks
*16-Mindi Terrell – 114 weeks
17-Linda Bennett – 143 weeks
18-Sarah Toot – 144 weeks
19-Angie DeWaard – 147 weeks
20-Dawn Krause – 152 weeks
21-Kim Barker – 157 weeks
*22-Joe Duff – 159 weeks
*23-Teresa Kahler – 170 weeks
*24-Carla Stensland – 170 weeks
25-Micky Augustin – 172 weeks
26-Andy Sharp – 173 weeks
27-Bill Wentworth – 174 weeks
28-Cathie Morton – 179 weeks
29-Elizabeth Nordeen – 179 weeks
30-Shannon Bardole-Foley – 181 weeks
*31-Kio Dettman – 183 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- No screen captures. This is a photography challenge. Not a “look at what I found on the internet” challenge.
- Please include the location of where the picture was taken with your submission.
There are still 2 ways to submit:
- Email your submission to bennett@photography139.com.
- 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) – 184 weeks
Shannon Bardole-Foley (Val Air Ballroom – Des Moines, Iowa) – 182 weeks
Elizabeth Nordeen (Iowa) – 180 weeks
Cathie Morton (Eastern State Penitentiary – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) – 178 weeks
Bill Wentworth (Omaha, Nebraska) – 175 weeks
Andy Sharp (Clinton, Iowa) – 174 weeks
Micky Augustin (Ames, Iowa) – 173 weeks
Carla Stensland (Ames, Iowa) – 171 weeks
Carla Stensland (Arnold’s Park, Iowa)
Teresa Kahler (Iowa) – 171 weeks
Teresa Kahler (Iowa)
Joe Duff (League City, Texas) – 160 weeks
Joe Duff (League City, Texas)
Kim Barker (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) – 158 weeks
Kim Barker (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Dawn Krause (Ames, Iowa) – 153 weeks
Angie DeWaard (Ames, Iowa) – 148 weeks
Sarah Toot (Baltimore, Maryland) – 145 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas) – 144 weeks
Linda Bennett (Kansas)
Mindi Terrell (Urbandale, Iowa) – 115 weeks
Mindi Terrell (Urbandale, Iowa)
Tamara Peterson (Perry, Iowa) – 111 weeks
Nathanial Brown (Boone, Iowa) – 100 weeks
Logan Kahler (Boone, Iowa) – 99 weeks
Sheri Fakhouri (Ankeny, Iowa) – 97 weeks
Scott Degeneffe (Boone County, Iowa) – 87 weeks
Lowell Davis (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) – 69 weeks
Mike Vest (Kansas City, Kansas) – 48 weeks
Deb Powers (Des Moines, Iowa) – 35 weeks
Deb Powers (Des Moines, Iowa)
Deanna McClain (Perry, Iowa) – 16 weeks
Sabas Hernandez (Ankeny, Iowa) – 16 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Lenexa, Kansas) – 3 weeks
Alexis Stensland (Lenexa, Kansas)
Becky Parmelee (Gulf of Alaska – Alaska) – 1 week
Mary Green (Iowa) – 1 week
Mary Green (Iowa)
Christopher D. Bennett (Eastern State Penitentiary – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
30 participants! That is a bad number! But to be expected when I was gone for a week.
There were submissions this week taken in the following places:
- *Alaska (1)
- Iowa (24)
- Kansas (5)
- Maryland (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Pennsylvania (5)
- Texas (2)
Thanks to Becky’s travels, we added Alaska to the map!
Here is the Year 12 list of places where submissions have been taken (submissions taken in each places):
- Alaska (1)
- Arkansas (6)
- California (3)
- Colorado (1)
- Florida (5)
- Illinois (4)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (487)
- Kansas (18)
- Kentucky (3)
- Maryland (3)
- Minnesota (3)
- Missouri (3)
- Nebraska (11)
- Nevada (2)
- New Jersey (2)
- New York (1)
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Pennsylvania (16)
- Tennessee (2)
- Texas (15)
- Washington (1)
- Washington D.C. (1)
- Wisconsin (3)
- Argentina (4)
- Chile (5)
There were a couple of milestones reached this week. Nathanial reached the Triple Digit Streak Club! WooHoo! WooHoo! WooHoo! Shannon joined the 3 Year Streak Club! WooHoo! WooHoo! WooHoo!
But it wasn’t all fun and games. There was a bloodbath of streaks. Sara’s streak is over at 2. Suzie’s streak is over at 3. Willy’s streak is over at 39. Worst of all, Brandon’s streak is over at 69! The humanity!
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:
WIDE ANGLE
WIDE ANGLE! What a great theme for Year 12 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!
What is a WIDE ANGLE image? It is simply an image taken at a perception that is larger than the human eye. What that means for those of you using real cameras. A picture taken with a lens that is less than 50mm. 35mm or wider to be safe. A perfect time to dust off that fisheye lens and play with it.
However, I think I can count on 1 hand the people that submit pictures taken with a real camera. Even the pro and semi-pro photogs use the camera on their phones mostly. My phone is a Google Pixel 8. So my camera will look different than your camera probably. But they are mostly the same. When you look at the settings on your camera it probably has a little button that says .7x, 1x, 2x, 5x. Your picture needs to be taken of any setting that is smaller than 1x. If you look at the theme reveal image you will see this is set at .5x.
Most people think of WIDE ANGLE as something that is used for landscapes. But I would urge you to play with getting closer to things with WIDE ANGLE than you normally do. I bet you will find the results to be fun!
That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will see your idea of WIDE ANGLE in this place that looks at all the angles next Monday!