Weekly Challenge Feedback and Suggestions

DeeElleAych

New member
If I were to set New York as a world time clock on my iPhone would this allow me to keep track of the closing time for the challenge in your time zone?

The submission cutoff has been moved back 1 day to Tuesday at midnight US eastern time for the "Stuck Indoors" Challenge. Likes will continue until Wednesday at midnight US eastern time.

The next challenge will be announced early on Wednesday, so we are not losing a full day of submission time going forward.

@Roy1961, @ptcasper & @oldhippy, one of you will be the winner of the "Fire" challenge and pick the topic for the next challenge, so think about what you will choose. The winner will receive a PM (private message), from one of the Challenge Team asking for the topic after the poll closes Sunday morning.

A challenge winner also has the option of picking from a short list of topics, so don't worry if you draw a blank, we've got you covered.:)
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
The Weekly Photo Challenge Team has been hard at work refining and polishing the Weekly Challenge for your picture posting pleasure.

Watch the challenge threads for a few tweaks to be announced starting tomorrow Sunday, August 24, 2014.
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
The Weekly Challenge Team has tweaked the challenge just a bit.


  1. The challenge topic will be announced more or less as soon as we have it lined out, but the shooting and submitting will not start until Wednesday. Thinking this will give everyone a couple days to think about a new challenge.
  2. The cut-off time for submissions and likes is changing to midnight UTC (8:00pm US Eastern Daylight Time). Basically this means the start/stop times will move 4 hours earlier, but don't worry, we will post reminders and announcements.
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
The Weekly Challenge Team will post reminders as challenges start and stop, so you don't need to think too much. But if you wanna think more, then this screenshot shows the times in various places.

The start time, submission cut-off and like cut-off will each occur at the times shown.

The clock below shows the start time for shooting and submitting for the Light & Shadow Challenge.

8pm US EDT(Tuesday) = 12am UTC(Wednesday) = 8am Perth (Wednesday)

Times_UTC.JPG
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
Reminder for everyone that the new Weekly Challenge Schedule is set to Midnight UTC.

The current challenge (Light and Shadow) submission period will end and the new challenge (Recreation) submission period will begin Wednesday 00:00 UTC.

That is the same as:

8:00pm Tuesday US EDT
7:00am Wednesday @siamthai1 time :)
9:30am Wednesday [MENTION=9753]Scott Murray[/MENTION] time :)
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Reminder for everyone that the new Weekly Challenge Schedule is set to Midnight UTC.

The current challenge (Light and Shadow) submission period will end and the new challenge (Recreation) submission period will begin Wednesday 00:00 UTC.

That is the same as:

8:00pm Tuesday US EDT
7:00am Wednesday @siamthai1 time :)
9:30am Wednesday @Scott Murray time :)

And don't forget, 7:00pm Tuesday @RocketCowboy time :)
- that's Texas time for anyone unfamiliar. :D
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
Thinking about it. There's a photo challenge each week. Why not something like a sharpness challenge? One photo usable by all.

It's not about winning or anything but about learning and understanding all the different approaches. I'd myself wouldn't mind learning why someone does what in that specific case.

In the end, sharpness is something we're all struggling with.

That right there, is a great idea! I'd like that too!


If someone wanted to start a new thread in the Tutorials forum we could attack it as sort of an open-ended "Group Tutorial" sort of thing. I have Mod power over there so I could keep things orderly. Someone mentioned creating a DropBox account, which I think would be a good thing as wel; one "box" we could all access for the purposes of uploading RAW files to be worked on.

This is a concept that could really catch on.....


I pulled these quotes from the thread where posted as my thoughts were not specific to the question in that thread.


Thought about this myself quite a bit and the Challenge Team has touched on the subject of post processing and other technique challenges. The Weekly Challenge needs some structure, but not sure challenges like this would need as much. But, if there is interest in the Challenge Team creating these and/or fostering/supporting their creation, I'm sure we would be happy to do so.
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
Below please find a set of clocks set to when the challenges ended last night, bearing mind in some parts of the world it was this morning and other parts it was this afternoon.

We realize it may be confusing at times, but the cutoff has to be worldwide and UTC should be the easiest for members worldwide to relate. It also means the Challenge Team is playing starter/stopper at a time when more than one team member can be handy just in case.

Except for the initial early announcement and the poll open/close, all start/stop times are the same as these. Note that in the US it is Tuesday afternoon/evening. Daylight Savings Time does affect local start/stop times.

EST-UTC-PST.jpg
 
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Eyelight

Senior Member
Let's all review the guidelines:

Let's see how creative you can be! Color, B&W, HDR...anything goes!

DO NOT SHOOT OR POST IMAGES UNTIL WEDNESDAY March 18th
This early announcement of the topic is to give a little think time, before the challenge begins. Photos must be taken and submitted between 00:00 UTC of the start date and 00:00 UTC of the end date.




The Rules

1. Photos must be posted to the thread in order to be considered for the challenge. No gallery images or off-site links (flickr, 500px, etc) will be accepted.

2. Any photo submitted for a weekly challenge must be taken during the dates specified in the challenge thread.

3. Only one photo entry per member for each week, unless otherwise noted.

4. All regularly active members of Nikonites are allowed to participate, including moderators and administrators.

Voting

During the submission & like periods, please click the Thanks/Like button to vote for your favorite images. You can vote for as many as you want! At the end of the week, you will have the opportunity to vote again for the top 3 photos for this challenge!

There will be no cash or prizes awarded for the Weekly Photo Challenges, unless specifically noted by the site administrator.

Any photo will be accepted for the challenge. Edited or straight out of the camera, it does not matter. You are left with complete freedom to do whatever genre of photography you wish to do, and your own interpretation of the challenge subject.


So, what is the purpose of the "Challenge" here? Are we trying to "compete" or "win" or are we trying to have fun and create a community where we can be creative and get inspired by the creativity of others? That's certainly the take-away message I got from the above stated "Rules." I'm interested to see what others come up with and thought it would be fun to jump in. Last week when someone forgot to include EXIF data, the response was, "that's ok, we're on the honor system here." And, IMHO, regarding whether these very light-hearted and liberal "Rules" need to have an additional note with a restriction that the creative tool one uses must be a Nikon camera, well personally I couldn't care less if you happened to be somewhere and find an appropriate shot and took it with your cell phone. I'd love to see it and how it fits in with the current challenge. So is this a creative challenge? Or a technical challenge - how well you utilize your Nikon? My guess is that seeing that this is a site for Nikon equipment users, it's a given that that will be the case the majority of the time, but once in awhile one might stumble upon something and not have their Nikon gear with them. Big deal.

The Weekly Challenge is managed by non-moderator volunteer-like folk. We listen and try to tweak as best we can to make the challenges as wide open and fun as possible.

Camera in use, where the image is hosted and EXIF info will be clarified in the near future. Input is always welcome, so input away.
 

SHAkers718

Senior Member
Does anyone else think it's a little confusing that the challenge is for a week, but your submissions must be in the day before?

For instance, March 18- March 25 "N" challenge - but posting closed at 8:00 p.m. EST on March 24. Seems one or the other of those dates should be changed - either end it on March 24 or accept entries through March 25.

From the Sticky post:
3.Photos must be taken and submitted between 00:00 UTC of the start date and 00:00 UTC of the end date.
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
Does anyone else think it's a little confusing that the challenge is for a week, but your submissions must be in the day before?

For instance, March 18- March 25 "N" challenge - but posting closed at 8:00 p.m. EST on March 24. Seems one or the other of those dates should be changed - either end it on March 24 or accept entries through March 25.

From the Sticky post:
3.Photos must be taken and submitted between 00:00 UTC of the start date and 00:00 UTC of the end date.

8:00pm EDT on March 24 is the same as 00:00 UTC on March 25. Looking at US Eastern, the challenges start and ends at 8:00pm EDT, so it is a full 7 days. The time is just adjusted due to the time difference between US Eastern and UTC.

We would have the same issue regardless of time zone used. The idea behind using UTC is it should be easier for most people to relate to than one of the other 23 time zones.

Maybe there is a better way. Suggestions are welcome. That's why this thread is here.
 

wornish

Senior Member
Cant think of an easier system given this forum is global.

There will always be a cut off whatever system you select.
The trick is don't leave your submission until the last minute then its not an issue.
 

SHAkers718

Senior Member
8:00pm EDT on March 24 is the same as 00:00 UTC on March 25. Looking at US Eastern, the challenges start and ends at 8:00pm EDT, so it is a full 7 days. The time is just adjusted due to the time difference between US Eastern and UTC.

We would have the same issue regardless of time zone used. The idea behind using UTC is it should be easier for most people to relate to than one of the other 23 time zones.



Maybe there is a better way. Suggestions are welcome. That's why this thread is here.

Ok. I've never seen only 00:00 (zeroes) used - to me that looks like a "fill in the blank"
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
Ok. I've never seen only 00:00 (zeroes) used - to me that looks like a "fill in the blank"

It used to say midnight, but each day has two midnights, so midnight could mean the start of the day or end of the day. Using the 00:00 designates the start of the day.

All this is the reason we try to mark the start and end of the shoot/submit period with a post to the thread, but we're not always available.
 
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