The problem with on-line photo contests

[lewinp]

I think there is a fundamental problem with these on-line contests. Many creative, subtle shots never get the recognition they should, because the nature of on-line galleries is such that the winners are often either gaudily over-saturated or bad cliches we've seen over and over again (yes, we get it - you've been to Antelope canyon).

I wish there was a better technology for viewing these, because is these user-voted contest, it really should be called "the best thumbnail award." Especially with how popular contests are now, no matter how many 'next' buttons you put on the page, people are going to scan thumbs, especially when the past few contests have had some 4,000 plus entries. Even at 100 thumbs a page, who is going to give 40 pages of photos an honest look and take the time to open their mind to the beautiful subtly of many less iconic, less supersaturated, but far more creative images?

Because of this, many of the nicer shots (in my humble opinion) are never even rated or viewed in your contest. I often start from the last page and work my way forward - there are many very creative gems in there that sadly don't stand a chance. This is why I don't bother entering anymore.

[oTTer]

Actually I have never been to Antelope Canyon. Anyone else have pictures so I can say "Oh, is that what they call that place..."?

[gldiana]

Lewinp, I totally agree with you, but sadly your comment has only value as far as comment in a forum goes. This forum is hosted on the server of OP and that's about it, editors of OP have never been (and I'm guessing never will) here. All the people you see writing here are people who are passionate about photographer but I never came across, in all these years, anyone who actually works for the magazine.

The technology you wish for does exist: it's a plugin for Firefox called CoolIris. It's very useful and allows you to browse full size straight from pages that display thumbnails. It's very fast and has a nice clean interface.