Photographer of the Year 2011

[Mick]

Digital Camera magazine's Photographer of the Year 2011 competition will cost £10 to enter, which wil allow photographers to enter up to 50 images across all 10 categories.  And a limit of 5 photos per category.

What do you all think of the £10 fee to enter this competition?  Do you think it will kill it or cure it.

Good move.    Bad move. 

[ABERS]

The thing was a lottery anyway, but now you have to buy a ticket to enter.
£1500 is not going to get the professionals too wound up (perhaps).

[greypoint]

That's a first - Digital Photograph of the Year usually gets controversial after the entries have been counted. But don't you normally pay to enter a lottery - you do get 50 goes for your £10, although there seem to be complaints that under last years rules it would have been 100. So 20p per picture is'nt bad really   

[Mick]

Must admit, if they get as many entries as previous years they'll be in the money.  Perhaps they can spend some on the site. 

  The news doesn't seem to be going down well over at PR does it.  I feel another uprising coming on.

[Oldboy]

It's a difficult to know if it's a money raising scheme, or to reduce the dross that must get entered. 

[krennon]

Not sure I'd pay to enter the comp have they explained why the decrease in the number of entries as well....and there's to many dodgy decisions in my opinion....
I'd rather wait until I can get "THE SHOT" to enter into the wildlife photographer of the year comp....and yes I know wolf pic caused some controversy but this years pic of the backlit ants on leaf was something different...preferred the big cat shots myself but thats just my personal choice....

Nope won't be entering 50 shots to the PoTY comp...concentrating on the AP comp anyway for this year (not that I expect to get even shortlisted but half the fun in entering this is if your shot gets shortlisted it appears in the mag....then I could honestly say I'm a published photographer  )

[michaelb104]

Woo Hoo, I'm entering this year (never entered before) because turning £10 into £1500 is a fantastic ROI.

I'm working on the theory that I'll be the only one entering now there is a charge, so I've got to win!!! And the best bit I don't even have to take a photograph this year to win, I can use one from my P&S I took in 2007.

What a brilliant competition, it's just genius.

   


On a more serious note what has always got me about this competition is that I can take a photo 5 years ago, never touch a camera since, enter it into the POTY competition and then become photographer of the year 2011 – I really cannot get my little brain around how that works 

[ABERS]

What I dislike about the competition, whether it's free or not, is the fact that the distinguished panel of judges are presented with images that are deemed suitable by the magazine. If I enter a picture in the hope that it will be selected for an exhibition I know that the judging panel will see it amongst all the other entries.

For a reason that I still can't fathom I was invited to the judging and presentation of prizes shindig that another magazine ran last year. It became patently obvious that the 'finalists' were chosen by the editor of the mag. with a little help perhaps from the office junior and the post girl, the panel of distinguished judges were left to place them in a 1-2-3 order.

That's the method of choosing POTY as well, so before you part with £10 know what you're in for.

[greypoint]

Now I may have got this wrong....but my theory has always been that the POTY  was orgainised in such a way that it would a. bring the largest possible number of entries and b. cause lots of controversy and heated argument because of the inbuilt faults and the way people get het up about comments and votes on their pictures [I'd be happy to find 5 photos on my hard drive that I'd enter with any realistic chance of getting past the office junior - let alone 50!]. All this generates a huge traffic to the site - and that's what keeps the advertisers happy - and that is what it's all about. So restricting the entries does seem a bit strange.......that, and the fact they still get away with calling it POTY 2011 in view of the remarks above re when the winning shot [which could be a total fluke by the winner!] could have been taken several years ago. Fun to watch the arguments though.....just waiting for the responses....taking a long time.........

[jinky]

I put my response in and think it is odd, for the above reasons given, in that numbers will be reduced sand whilst prize money shared more they look like they will be pocketing some if numbers are as high. I`ve only paid to enter one competition and that was because it was to the charity(BHF) and I did not mind that element. I don`t see PR /DC Mag as a suitable charitable case so unless I come up with a nailed on winner I cannot wait to share with the world it is unlikely.

[Jonathan]

We all know that Future are a business trying to make money, right?