Beautiful photography and magical art all created by John Haldane

A View from Behind the Lens

Blogs: #8 of 8

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I vote on almost all contests at FAA including those I do not enter. I am very careful and make my best judgments as to which images I deem worthy of a vote. When I enter a contest, I vote for my own because I never enter I contest unless I believe my image is worthy. :)

I do find the process of voting very discouraging, however. When one person enters the same 2 photos in 2 different contests and almost immediately they have 4 votes each in each contest, something smells bad. Do they have four FAA accounts? That seems most likely. But is certainly is not fair.

In other contests,like one I saw today, a lousy image with lousy processing gets 68 "votes" and the next nearest has 24. WTF? Something smells very bad there, too.

Other contests are won by entries that not only are lousy images but don't even meet the criteria of the contest or have nothing to do with the theme. How do they win? Certainly not by the votes of careful, intelligent artists doing their best. No, recruiting votes and stuffing the ballot box does it.

The same happened with the FAA TV contest. It was disgusting. When one artist qualifies 3 photos and some super photos struggle to get 100 votes, the process is faulty at best and corrupt at worst.

I have run a few contests, too. I cannot believe how many people do not even read the contest guidelines! Entries that have nothing to do with the subject or do not meet the rules are submitted every day. I delete and they are resubmitted! WTF? Is it that people just toss anything out there because they can recruit votes and "win" contests they have no business even being in?

I do know that values differ. That is what makes art great. My decisions are not what everyone has to decide. But I would expect on a professional site that votes would at least be made with clear conscience and according to some standards besides "vote for your friends."

I have been on FAA for less than 3 months and have had almost 11,000 views of my photos. I have even won a few contests. But many contests I get 0 or 1 (my) votes. It is quite baffling to me.

I have had many photos published in magazines and newspapers, sold in galleries at at fairs, and sold from my websites. None have sold at FAA - not a single image. That, too, is baffling.

Perhaps this isn't the professional site I initially judged it to be. It certainly doesn't work for me in terms of sales, feedback, or contests.

And that is today's view from behind the lens.