Entering BOP is about as easy as unlocking the genetic code

Yeah, it is kind of a pain. The call for entries made it sound worse than it was though. Once I started it wasn’t all that bad.

erin, you’re pretty spot on. i thought i was just spacing out.

haha… I have to second Erin and Mustafah on this one.

So I just finished my BOP entrance… its 2 AM here, and I started the process at 5 PM. Oh wait, I took a 30 minute break for dinner… so excluding my need to eat and peel my eyes away from the Mac screen for a half hour, I am ashamed to say that it took me a whopping EIGHT AND A HALF hours to prepare my files, and that’s not including the file transfer time on the FTP. Again, maybe its just me, but perhaps it could be the 5 extensive web pages I had to surf through on the BOP website, the coding, image relabeling, resizing, categorizing, and folder creating. Damn, I sure hope I win something! haha:)

Well, if you’re looking for an explanation for the convoluted nature of the contest, it’s right in the byline:

“THE CONTEST DESIGNED BY PHOTOJOURNALISTS FOR PHOTOJOURNALISTS”

I think it’s fairly insane..maybe necessarily so for them to keep track, but I keep thinking how one really has to have the privilege of time or money (someone to prepare your entries for you) as well as the ability to grasp what they want from you. Certainly it is not enough to be a talented photographer; meaning with the time set aside to do this and a firm grasp on our language, I’m struggling, so I know around this wide globe there are others who had to give up..and that makes me sad for them.

Erin, I’m on day 3..but also had to edit and write captions..still. Hopefully I will be done long before midnight..I’ve decided to not prepare a lot of entries, for the sake of sanity..eggs in one basket; alas.

Its a very complex guideline. But, and this is for me a big BUT, they don’t charge a fee. I have several emails from photo festivals and contest that they don’t mention that you have to pay. Another good issue is that they reply very fast your questions. I finish the submitions in four hours, with a pause to buy some wine so i can understand clear the directions :)
Good luck people

upload itself was easy!

Erin, I was wondering if it was just me! My entry to BOP is uploading as I write this and I am happy to have completed the entry! Yikes! that was tedious! As you say, other contests like WPP are a heck of a lot easier to enter. The entry instructions for BOP are convoluted and it would be good if they ‘slaved’ over streamlining them.

Haha, glad I am not the only one! Charlie, your one-liner was hilarious! Yes, its true… we photographers might be good with image making… not so great with giving directions.

Erica, I thought the same thing. I have a lot of sympathy for our friends in Gaza, including the Internationals but esp the Palestinian PJs, right now who might want to enter but have handfuls of other things they are dealing with. And what if their English is not so good… how much more complicated it would be for them! But it is nice that there is no entrance fee.

Maybe we should start a BOP support group… :)

Also… Are you suppose to get a confirmation email that your entry was received? Mine finished uploading late last night, and I haven’t received anything that confirms…

Erin, I think it said confirmation by the 4th of Feb..and then you have time to correct errors..as IF we want to revisit out entries!

I remember read in some place that take several days to get a response. If you don’t get one at four of february contact someone of the contest. Don’t ask me to found again that line please, I have my eyes crossed follow that directions.

Erica and Hernan: I remember that last year the confirmation e-mails come a few days later—as long as you entered your e-mail address in the correct field in each image!

the e-mail confirm comes a week after, the instructions say. after the whole headache getting everything ready, i must say the finale of uploading to the FTP is surprisingly lackluster. good luck everyone.

I received my confirmation email today. Wow, this is fast.

me too. . . mustafah: uploading to ftp sites is always anticlimactic after all the time spent preparing images, isn’t it?! :))))

An interesting read on the proliferation of photo contests:

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0901/contest-mania.html

And now after all the hustling.. an extension to Feb. 8. From the NPPA web-site:

Because last week’s ice storm prevented some people from entering before the Jan 30th deadline, the Still Photo, Photo Editing, and Web contest entry deadlines have been extended through Feb 8th.

Thanks Teru. I read before this article. Eventually i participate in some contest but i think is is crazy use money that is difficult to earn to pay a submition. I prefer to buy film or buy a ticket to the place i want to shot. But this is how this goes. For some people is a business the publicity of emerging photographers. I am too old for that.

You youngsters crack me up. Back in the day it was all 16X20 prints. Yes, 16X20s. And story boards of prints. And AND it was before Fed Ex. Ofcourse back in the “good old days” we shot something called film, too. I should get out of my rocking chair and rap you on the head with my cane by cracky.

In case somebody else other than me is curious about these rules. Here is the link to the NPPA site explaining everything for still photography.

JR, I’ve met you and you aren’t THAT old. FedEx began in 1969. I recall when it started up, because a client of my law firm then was a competitor. The CEO of our client said it would be bankrupt in a year. That client no longer exists. Fed Ex continues bigger than ever.

According to Stephen Colbert you shouldn’t trust the NPPA at all, it’s apparently just a shadowy network of terrorists according to both the NSA and Homeland Security. Remember, photojournalists are not good people – they’re terrorists.