If at first you don't succeed...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Well, I didn't win the Quark Expeditions Official Blogger contest. I ended up coming in at about 22nd place or so. Not too bad considering I started a month & a half after the contest first opened. Thank you all for going and voting for me! It meant a lot that so many of my friends & family were willing to help me out. The guy who was in the lead ended up getting over 11,000 votes, so I really wasn't too surprised that I never caught up to him. I guess having a radio show where you can pimp for votes daily helps a little...

So, I've got this shiny new blog, and nowhere to go. What now?

I'm going to keep trying!

Plan B:

Getting votes didn't work, so now I'm trying with my mad foto skillz!

WorldNomads.com had partnered with the National Geographic Channel & Gap Adventures to award one exceptional individual the chance to go on assignment with renowned wildlife photographer Jason Edwards to Antarctica! (http://journals.worldnomads.com/scholarships/post/32554.aspx)

To apply you needed to do the following:

1. Shoot a series of photos (maximum of 5) that tell a story about a place you have visited. The judges will be looking for:

* originality
* ability to convey a story through photos
* excellent technique

2. Upload your photos (maximum of 5) from this theme to Flickr and;

a. Use the image captions to tell us about the place you photographed.
b. Numerically number your photos in the title if you wish them to be considered in a particular order.
c. Please do not use any Flickr tools that highlight certain parts of your photos as this only hampers the judging process.
d. Add the images to the World Nomads Scholarship Group. Only photographs in this group will be considered.

3. Complete an entry form which includes a 300 word (max) essay on why you should be chosen and copy and paste the links to your photo series. Your written response will have significant weighting in the judging process, so think carefully about why you should be chosen. Remember this is a learning opportunity, not a junket for professional photographers.

So I applied. And now I wait. With fingers & toes crossed.

My photos were a lot better than many that entered. Unfortunately, there were also some I felt were better than mine. We'll see. It's up to the judges. The entry deadline was last Sunday, and if I win I'll know within the next 2 weeks.

The pictures I entered were from the Fort Snelling Upper Post. I went to photograph it twice; once right at sundown with some gorgeous light, but only from the outer edges, and once in early afternoon so the light wasn't great, but it was with a tour so I got to go behind the fence to get different views. Such cool buildings. It'll be a real shame if they don't get restored before crumbling completely away.

The five pictures I submitted were these (Just click on any of them to see a bigger version):