Still waiting...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The winner of the worldnomads.com 2009 Photography Scholarship was supposed to be announced on October 19th. But they hadn't let me know I was the winner yet... I went to the site today to check out who won and found this in the comments: 

Hi everyone, 

A winner for the World Nomads 2009 Photography Scholarship is still undecided. 

Our judges have been so overwhelmed by your response that we need a few more days to make the final selection. 

We will send an email out directly to all applicants announcing the winner as soon as we can.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,

Tara Parsons

World Nomads

  scholarships Oct 19, 2009 8:53 PM

And also followed by this comment from Jason Edwards who is the photographer I'll be going to Antarctica with:

Hi Everyone!

I have just read all of your recent postings, they are great and yes it is very exciting! I was sitting here smiling as I don't even know who the winner is myself!! Apologies for the delay but here is a a little background on the judging.

After all entries are received and we confirm the entries are loaded correctly the judging process begins at National Geographic Channel, World Nomads and other locations. The finalists from these rounds of judging are then collated for overlaps and a Finalist list compiled.

This list is then sent to me to judge and select the final candidate. I rely on the other judges to assess the overall entries so that I am fair and fresh with every entry I eventually judge. Having a variety of people review entries also creates a mixed set of results which is great.

After I receive the list I have my assistant download all of the images and place them in folders without names attached. I then judge each of the entries not knowing who shot them, where they live, whether they are male or female, even their age. I do not allow myself to be influenced by anything other than the images.

I rate each of the judging criteria out of 5 and log them into a spread sheet. Each finalist is assigned a number, last year there were about 10, this year I accepted 32 as there were so many strong entries! After i have completed the image judging I assess the written components and assign scores out of 5, to two additional criteria.

Only then do I create a calculation field to tally all of the individual totals and see what is the largest score. I then reveal the name of the person who is attached to that number eg finalist 17 or 25 etc. That is the first time I find out who the winner is! If more than one person has the same score I re-judge those candidates before revealing the winners name.

I hope you understand we take this very seriously and it has taken a little more time given the strength of your entries. With luck I should complete the judging today so depending where you are in the world you might receive this post and the winners name at the same time.

Thanks again for your fantastic entries you have made it very difficult. And yes we are already planning 2010!

Best Wishes

Jason

 Jason Edwards Oct 20, 2009 11:19 AM

The site has now been updated to say that the recipient of the Scholarship, along with the best entries will be published on WorldNomads.com on October 23, 2009.

At least they're based in Sydney, Australia so the 23rd there is actually the 22nd here. Even though the trip would be awesome, I'd also be totally thrilled to be on The Shortlist. After all, this is a National Freakin' Geographic photographer doing the judging y'all! To get onto the short list even would be quite the accomplishment. 

But, of course, we all know I'm going to win, right? :)