THANK YOU!

First of all, a big THANK YOU to all the photographers who have submitted photos in the Nature Photo Contest! Today is day nine, and we’ve already had over 180 submissions! I love seeing each photograph, and I am happy with every winner. I also enjoy discovering more photographers (professionals or amateurs), and learning new things about nature and different parts of the world. :)

Secondly, a big shout out to the JUDGES who have offered their time and talent in evaluating the entries! They have done a fantastic job, and it is partly thanks to them that I’ve been able to run the daily contest smoothly. The great communication with past and upcoming judges from around the globe is much appreciated!

Thirdly, many thanks to those who have resteemed the contest posts or mentioned them in some form or another. I am truly grateful for your support, and I am excited to see others catch the vision!

RECAP, UPDATES, and CLARIFICATIONS to the Introduction Post

The GOALS of the Nature Photo Contest are:

1. To showcase nature through great photography.
2. To promote top-quality photography and reward talented artists.
3. To be a resource to the steemit community.
4. To build community among the photographers. (To be added in a future re-introduction. I can already see this happen, and I think this is a worthy goal in and of itself.)

DAILY THEMES
Mountains Monday
Trees Tuesday
Water Wednesday
Time Lapse Thursday
Flora and Fauna Friday
Simple Sunday

TWO DAILY POSTS
Initially I was planning to only have one post each day, including the winners from the previous day, and opening up the submissions for that day’s theme. However, this turned out to be too cluttered, so I've separated them into the submissions post, and the winners announcement post.

SUBMISSIONS TIME FRAME
Initially, the submission time frame was 12 hours. This has been updated to 24 hours (approx. 9:00 AM EST – 9:00 AM EST the next day) for a few days now.

PRIZES AND PAYMENTS
The rewards in the Nature Photo Contest are: 20% first place, 12% second place, 7% third place, 3% honorable mentions (seven total), 20% judge, 20% hostess (responsible for uploading the submissions post, the announcement post, the daily payments, and ongoing communicating with judges).These come out of the SBD on the WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT POST. The gallery of winning photographs is meant to fulfill goals #2 and #3 by bringing the beauty of nature photography to the larger steemit community, and provide a win-win situation. The more resteems, the greater the exposure, and the bigger the rewards. Many thanks to those who have resteemed these galleries, and thank you to those who will consider this in the future!

QUESTIONS

Lastly, but most importantly, some questions on which I’d really appreciate your feed-back. Feel free to comment on any of these.. and thank you in advance!

1. Overall Impressions

What do you like about the Nature Photo Contest? What works well? How could we improve it?

2. Submission Options

So far the contest required for the entries to be posted as comments under the daily submissions post. This was intended to (1) make the judge’s work easier, and (2) not force photographers to create new posts daily. I’d like to keep this option, but I wonder if it would be advantageous to add another submission option, where people can enter photos via their individual posts on their own page, tagged with #naturephotocontest and the daily theme (#mountainsmonday, #treestuesday, etc..). Will adding this option make it easier for some to enter photos? Would it attract more engagement and publicity for the contest? Would it make it more difficult for the judges? Can the time frame and therefore eligibility be easily determined in this submissions option? Overall, would you vote yes, or no to adding this second option?

3. Categories/Themes

Any suggestion regarding the categories going forward? There is some overlap between some categories, of course. There was also a little bit of confusion regarding Time Lapse Thursday. I think @derekkind (who judged the first Thursday contest) understood the theme best as he explained it on his page. The theme required photos that "show the movement of time, through long exposure or some other method.” I personally really like these photos, but would be curious if you think this is the best use of Thursday. Another option would be Trails Thursday.. What are your thoughts/suggestions regarding the themes in general?

4. Exposure and Rewards

How can we attract more viewers, including non-photographers? Any suggestions for growing the rewards on the winners posts? I would really like to be able to send the winners more than a few cents. I also would not mind a better reward for my work.. I’ve put in about 20 hours the first week, and I estimate a daily one hour and half of detailed work on my part going forward. I do enjoy it a lot, for sure. :) But mostly I am interested in being able to reward the winners properly for their amazing skills. Thoughts? Suggestions?

5. Plagiarism

How can we make sure that plagiarism is avoided/discovered?

6. Sponsor

I will soon write a post and introduce the contest again specifically in search of some sponsors. Last night I sent the first prizes, and I was so excited to be able to drop a few coins into several accounts! Now, I have bid on that first winners post, just as a gift to the first winners. Unfortunately, I am not in the position to sponsor the contest at this point. I am hopeful that we can find a steemian (or more) who appreciates nature and good photography, and would be willing to sponsor the contest, though! With this in mind, would you like to share a couple sentences (to be included in that upcoming post) on why you think this contest is worth continuing, and why someone would be motivated to sponsor it ?

7. Nature Photography Book/s

Only a couple days into the contest, an idea crossed my mind: What if, say, a year from now, we gather the best photos and publish a book (or six)? There is definitely some amazing photography on here, and I can easily see some in print. It’s so great to connect with photographers around the world via our common love for nature and photography! Most of us will probably never meet in person, but what if we could build something together? As a graduate student, I am somewhat familiar with the publishing process (though not of photography), and I feel comfortable playing a role in this. What do you think? Crazy? Daring? Doable? I wonder how many flags we could pin on the back cover..! :)
*To be clear, participation in this contest does not bind you to this potential book project in any way. Should this become a concrete plan, a different conversation will be had about what publishing a book together entails. For now, just wanted to throw this out there to see what interest there is. No photo will be published without prior and proper agreement from the photographer!

Lastly, (and thank you for reading if you’ve made it so far!) I would just add that sometimes we can achieve more together than individually, and that supporting each other (including financially) may be even more rewarding than looking out for our own benefit primarily, though the latter is certainly understandable and entirely pertinent. :)

Thank you for your patience as I fine-tune this contest to make it a great experience for everyone!

Looking forward to your comments!