In support of the good/bad news challenge

09/12/2022 10:25:29 AM · #1

I read a comment regarding the good news/bad news challenge to which I thought I'd repond. There was some thought that it was just a freestudy challenge with a shoehorned title.

I, too, thought that many challenge entries were just free studies saved by the title. But when I looked later in the week, I thought the vast majority were valid. With one photo, instead of diptychs, is was a hard challenge. My image, for instance, is incredibly apt, if you understand ferrets. "ferreting away" is a definite thing! My daughter's ferrets will steal anything and go and hide it. I was trying to take photos of them with a stuffed lobster, but they would immediately grab it and make a break for it. They will climb into my daughter's purse and steal things. Luckily, they know most of the places the ferrets will stash the loot, or many things would be lost forever. Thus my take on the challenge.

Roz's Todd photo made me laugh. With that look on his face, he obviously was told not to take the food. I found it the perfect good news/bad news entry -- from the point of Mr. Todd.

I wasn't sure of Mark's photo until reading the title. But remembering being stuck in a maze of mirrors gave me the shivers, and struck a chord.

Sometimes challenges require the title to help the viewer out, and that's allowed. It's impressive when you can tell the whole story just with the photo. But it isn't completely necessary. Some titles/photo combinations did appear to be complete shoehorns, imo. But once I got past the idea that the photo had to say it all, I enjoyed the challenge so much more. It was interesting to see people's ideas.

My outtake -- entitled "We're getting another ferret! Ummm... We'll need another bowl"

The only idea that I had that would show everything in the photo without needing a title was actually my husband's idea, but neither he nor his brother wanted to do it:

A guy bending over in a busy street with a car coming at him "Hey, I found a nickel!"

hmmm, now that I think of it, that needed a title, as well.

Next time we need it to be a diptych so we can do it all in one entry!

Message edited by author 2022-09-12 10:34:45.

glad2badad

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09/12/2022 10:44:20 AM · #2

I didn't leave that comment, but my thoughts going thru and voting (which was a very difficult task for this challenge) was that hardly any of the challenge entries would have stood on their own without the title. Very, very much title driven.

Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, S21 Ultra

09/12/2022 10:46:43 AM · #3

Originally posted by glad2badad:

the more I thought about it, could you have an entry that showed both without having words somewhere? Either in the photo or in the title?

glad2badad

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09/12/2022 10:55:50 AM · #4

Originally posted by vawendy:

Originally posted by glad2badad:
I didn't leave that comment, but my thoughts going thru and voting (which was a very difficult task for this challenge) was that hardly any of the challenge entries would have stood on their own without the title. Very, very much title driven.

the more I thought about it, could you have an entry that showed both without having words somewhere? Either in the photo or in the title?

Would be very challenging. Would have to be a very obvious scenario with perhaps facial expression or gesturing to sell it.

Bear_Music

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

09/12/2022 10:56:14 AM · #5

IMO it was a challenge MADE for witty titles. And, again IMO, there's nothing wrong with that. But then, I'm a word guy... YMMV.

jcar

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

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09/12/2022 11:40:44 AM · #6

I think that it was another in the theme of the you name it challenge, about getting better titles and I thought people did a good job of meeting the challenge. I definitely gave higher scores than I expected. I'll also say that I thought klkitchens entry met the challenge even without relying on the title and was very impressive.

glad2badad

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Sears 55mm f/1.4 M42

09/12/2022 12:01:13 PM · #7

Originally posted by jcar:

Well, hmm. The 'You Name It' challenge was about getting commenters to generate a title for the entry and the photographer had no choice in the title (simply 'You Name It').

The description for 'You Name It' was quite verbose:
"Ever had trouble coming up with a good title? Just title your entry "You Name It!" sit back, and relax: Voters will have the fun of suggesting good titles in their comments. This is a time for both challenge participants and voters to have some good, clean fun."

The description for this one (Good News/ Bad News II) was the following:
"You know the drill: "The GOOD news is...but the BAD news is..." Let your imagination run wild!"

I think next time the description should perhaps say something like "Guide the viewers with your story in the title". :-P

Personally I was having a hard time coming up with something (and the props/people to do it) for this challenge that did tell a Good News / Bad News story with the photo.

I agree with your sentiment on

klkitchens entry.

klkitchens

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09/12/2022 12:13:58 PM · #8

Clearly I'm the whiny sour-grapes crybaby to which Wendy alluded (she didn't imply I was that at all, but I know from my POV how I sound, lol)...

Having been away for awhile, I was not aware the pulse of the site had changed so much and in so many ways. People (myself included) used to be killed for shoehorning a photo that ONLY made sense with the title. I was likewise not aware there had been challenges where the title was directly the key to the image (and if I did take part long ago, the stigma of shoehorning took higher place in my aging memory).

I agonized over the title to keep it from being too "on the nose" as they say in screenwriting, but be more of a subtle title, while the image carried both elements. Yes, had to do it with a "telegram", but I don't feel the use of text there was an issue because telegrams are a text medium.

One thing I've enjoyed about popping here from time to time is looking over my old entries (and some are really bad in hindsight), but reading the comments again, where people "got me" in terms of hidden humor or messages, even if the execution was poor. As well reading the constructive criticism from folks. DPC definitely had some golden years.

I'm less bitter/more better this morning. The photos that ribboned were good photos by good photographers. I did not vote because to me MOST of them were (and still are) shoehorns and since I was in the challenge, didn't feel my vote would be proper. It would pain me to vote down a good photo as DMNC (more so than it used too, lol). But likewise it would pain me more to vote UP a good photo that DNMC too. Especially now that each vote affects the scores high and low with so much gravity. So I just sat out voting.

The closest other to meeting the challenge, to me was the red ribbon by Roz. Having been a dog owner I could see his unwilling reluctance to chow down.

As for Wendy's proposed idea, that would have worked MUCH better and been very easy to shoot! Just find a parked bus or dump truck (or steamroller!) and have the subject holding the coin or bill and fist pumping! Even a friend in a car would have worked... even side on with the card moving from the left or right about to "hit" the subject.

If you've read this far, thanks. :)

09/12/2022 12:57:11 PM · #9

Originally posted by klkitchens:

Ack, I didn't mention you on purpose -- because I had the same thoughts and problems in coming up with my entry, my title, etc. Even though it fit, I felt that I was shoehorning because the photo couldn't convey it without the title. I almost didn't enter. But when I saw how many entries there were, and how hard it seemed to be, I figured I'd do it anyway. :)

This thread was more about the challenges of the challenge. And could we really meet the challenge without text of any kind? Kevin's photo was brilliant, and I'm impressed with all he did to accomplish it. Yet, it also depended upon text -- this time within the photo.

So this was more of a curiousity thread. I rarely read titles. I figure a photo should be worth a thousand words, so I have a tendency to only read titles when I don't understand the photo. (I should really change that!) So this one stumped me, and I was curious what people thought going in and after it was all finis.

posthumous

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09/12/2022 01:14:34 PM · #10

I come to this thread after viewing the challenge results. My thought was definitely that the ribbons were all shoehorns, for better or worse. Explaining the behavior patterns of a ferret does not change this.

klkitchens met the challenge, but only by taking a picture of words.

One way I could imagine doing this is to show the bad news and write a title that said the good news, or vice versa.

I am all for witty titles, but shoehorned titles are not necessarily witty. markwiley's title, for example, was witty.